Jake's Journey
by godblessmaryoloughlin
Summary: When Jake Baker saved three infant Eevees' lives, he decided to become a pokemon trainer. Follow him and his Eevees on his journey across Johto, Kanto and Hoenn. Set a couple of years after the third generation games.
1. Chapter 1

Jake Baker looked out over the rolling hills that surrounded him, losing himself in the picturesque scenery. He stood at just over six feet tall, had short blond hair, and hazel eyes. He'd often come down here in the mornings for a run, and this had produced a healthy tan. He lived in a rural area, but the property on which he and his mother lived was actually quite small. There were no fields to work, no Miltank to milk. It was quiet, and peaceful, but Jake couldn't help but feel bored at times. There were also few people his age nearby. Only two, in fact. They were brothers, and lived a couple of properties over. They were also obnoxious, spoilt brats, so Jake only visited them when he had absolutely nothing better to do. The elder one, Simon Grey, was seventeen, and his brother, Chris, was fourteen. Jake himself was sixteen, as of two weeks ago. The boy's father, Peter, used to be a Gym Leader in the Hoenn region, before he left and handed over leadership to his brother, Norman. Peter was in fact a very nice person, and Jake found he enjoyed his company more then his son's. Peter would often recount to Jake his various adventures and memorable battles, both as a trainer and gym leader, as well as letting Jake play with some of his less powerful pokemon. It was this generosity, in fact, which had led to his sons being the spoilt little kids they were, despite their age. It was also why the entire family was off on vacation to visit Peter's brother in Hoenn.

Today was one of those days when Jake probably would have visited the Greys, but he knew they were not home, so he decided to explore a little further around the landscape. He knew all the farmers in the area, and they all let him run around their properties. He'd occasionally bump into one of them, though this was rare, given the sheer size of the paddocks.

His usual run took him close to a small patch of woods, though he'd never ventured closer. It wasn't as though he had any reason not to; he'd just never got around to it. He decided now was as good a time as any to check it out. As he approached, he heard the sound of heavy machinery somewhere in the distance. He slowed to a jog, and then a walk, as he started making his way around the edge of the forest. He got to the edge of the property he was on, and climbed the fence. He wasn't sure who owned this land, but figured they wouldn't mind him wondering around.

After a few minutes, the source of the sounds came into view from behind the trees. Heavy machines were scooping up fallen trees, while others were cutting them down. He could hear wood being fed into a saw, and he saw planks being loaded onto a truck. He suddenly remembered seeing some of this machinery in town the other day. He also thought his mother might have mentioned it, but he wasn't sure.

"Well, it's nothing to do with me," Jake said to himself, as he turned to continue his run. But he was upset. He didn't like the idea of trees being chopped down. It was strange, though. He was sure that the woods in this area were protected, because they were supposed to contain some rare species on pokemon. He dismissed it. He was probably wrong.

Seeing the forest being cut down put Jake in a bit of a bad mood. It was getting hot, and he didn't feel like running anymore. He ducked into the forest, welcoming the cool shade that enveloped him. The logger's machines were still very loud, so he began walking away. Once the loggers were only a distant rumbling in the background, he stopped. Jake wanted to explore deeper inside the woods, but he knew he shouldn't without protection of some kind. Pokemon could get quite nasty if you trespassed on their territory. He hadn't seen any since entering the forest, though, so he assumed they must have all been scared off by the noise. The forest called, and in the end, he obliged.

The trees got progressively denser, and the light dimmer, the further Jake walked. He tried to keep the edge of the forest in sight at all times, but a couple of times it disappeared from view. He corrected himself each time, however, and continued on. He was just thinking about how lucky he was that he hadn't run into any wild pokemon when he heard a rustle nearby. He spun around, but saw nothing. He could still hear the loggers fairly clearly in the distance, so he assumed that was what he'd heard. He kept his eye out, though, and when he heard the rustle for a second time, he saw it too. It was coming from a small group of bushes. Curiosity overcame any fear, and he carefully approached. He peered over, and saw what appeared to be a ball of brown fur. Then he saw the blood, and realised the creature was hurt.

He rushed around the bushes and knelt down beside the injured pokemon. He was stunned when he realised he was looking at an Eevee. It was curled up into a ball and bleeding freely, but from where he couldn't tell, and as he looked around he saw a trail of blood leading back towards the machinery.

"Must have been hurt by those loggers," he said to himself as he reached towards the paws.

"Ee-eev," panted the injured Eevee, as it tried to protect itself. Jake looked closer at the paws and saw that they seemed to have been crushed by something. They were disfigured, and he realised that they were the source of the blood.

"Geeze, what happened?" Jake wondered, to no-one in particular. "Maybe one of the falling trees hit it. Hey, don't worry," he said to the Eevee, trying to calm it down. "I'll take you home and we'll get you fixed right up."

It was at this moment that he heard some other, muffled noises coming from somewhere underneath the Eevee. A tiny shape crawled out from under the pokemon. Jake couldn't believe his eyes. It was another Eevee, but this one was a baby, less than the size of his hand. Even more incredible, it was silver.

The tiny Eevee started growling at Jake, defending what now appeared to be its mother. Two more Eevees crawled out, and they too began to growl, albeit more timidly. These two were of more common colouring, one a deep chestnut, another slightly lighter. They were also slightly larger than the silver one, but still obviously infants.

Jake started to back away. He knew he was in little danger from the small pokemon, but he didn't want to startle them, nor did he want to attract the attention of any other Eevees, who may be more willing to attack. He couldn't leave, however. He couldn't leave the poor mother to die, orphaning the cubs. He sat down against another tree, hoping to show the infants that he wasn't going to hurt their mother. After about a minute they seemed to relax, but they didn't move, and Jake could feel their eyes watching him.

Jake was starting to worry about the mother. He wasn't sure, but he thought her breathing was getting shallower. He was worried about the amount of blood she must have lost. It just occurred to Jake that she could have been there long before he arrived, and that he really had no idea how much blood she'd lost. Finally, he decided to try to get all the Eevees back to the house. He was dreading the trip. He could imagine what it would be like carrying a fairly large, bleeding Eevee and three squirming cubs all the way back.

"Why don't I have my bloody mobile!" he exclaimed, a little louder than he'd meant. This startled the cubs, and put them back on guard.

"Sorry guys, but I can't wait any longer," Jake said to the cubs as he stood up. "Your mother's in trouble and needs some help. I'm not going to hurt her, don't worry."

Jake wasn't even sure they understood him. He actually knew next to nothing about pokemon, at least when it came to understanding humans. He knew that trained pokemon could understand, but he wasn't sure if it was an age thing, or a training thing. All he knew is that the cubs didn't react in the slightest to the words he'd said. He silver one began to tense, as if to attack, as Jake approached, before he heard the mother whimper something.

Jake heard the Eevees talking, but he had no idea what they were saying. Finally, the cubs backed down, and parted to allow Jake through. Jake tore off some strips from his shirt, and tried to bandage the mother's paws as effectively as he could. The mother squealed as he put pressure on the paws, and the cubs once again started growling, but the mother seemed to calm them again. He went back to work, and eventually, the bleeding seemed to stop.

He picked up the mother, but as he did so, the cubs started whining. Understanding that they didn't want to be left alone, he gently placed her back on the ground. He figured that the reason the mother calmed the cubs was that she could understand what he said, so he told her, "Tell your cubs to climb on top of you. That way, I can carry all of you."

He heard the mother whimper some more, each sound getting fainter and fainter. Finally, the darkest of the cubs climbed on. The lighter one followed right behind. The aggressive silver cub was more hesitant. It was obvious that it didn't trust Jake. Finally, with some more urging from its mother, it climbed on.

Satisfied, Jake picked up the group, and headed back towards the edge of the forest. With every step he took he worried that he was hurting the mother. He was also worried the cubs might fall, as they were precariously placed. He noticed that he never came across the fence he climbed over on the way there, so figured that he must have passed onto this property while in the woods. This came as a great relief. He'd been walking as fast as he could without dropping the pokemon for about five minutes when he saw a truck in the distance. It was driving along a dirt road. Jake hurried over to the side of the road to try to get his attention.

The truck slowed and came to a halt when it reached Jake. A large man got out of the car. His name was Rod Wilson, and he owned the property. He was a friend of both his mother and the Greys, and he saw him often at both places.

Seeing the injured Eevee and its cubs, he asked, "What happened here, Jake?"

"I don't know, Mr Wilson. I just found them in the forest. I think she might've been injured by those loggers." Jake looked hopefully at the truck. "Could you give us a lift back home?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course!" said Mr Wilson, astonished that Jake felt the need to ask. "Get 'em in the truck quick."

Mr Wilson opened the passenger door for Jake as he climbed in.

"We'd best go to my place. I've got some medicine and things I keep for injured livestock. It'll be a bumpy ride, so don't let those cubs fall, and try to support the mother."

"Well, I'll try," said Jake, not entirely sure he'd be able to.

The drive only took about five minutes, but they were the longest minutes of Jake's life. More than once it seemed that the cubs would fall, especially the silver one, who refused to lean against Jake for safety. He almost dropped the mother once as well, as they went over a particularly deep pothole.

They finally arrived at Mr Wilson's house, where his mother, Liz, was waiting outside. Mr Wilson had called her on the way, telling her to drive over and prepare a first aid kit.

"Jake!" shrieked his mother frantically as they pulled up. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine. It's this Eevee that's hurt."

"Oh, OK, then hurry inside and we'll have a look."

Jake almost ran inside with the Eevees in his arms. As gently as he could, he set the pokemon down on the kitchen table. The cubs jumped off and watched as they quickly got to work. Liz removed the makeshift bandages, which were now soaked with blood, and applied some fresh ones. By this time the mother didn't even have the energy to wince, which worried Jake a great deal. Her breathing was getting shallower by the minute, as the three of them worked.

"Jake," said Mr Wilson with forced calm, "Go get those pokemon antibiotics from the stables. She may have an infection."

Jake hurried outside and appeared a minute later with the medicine.

"Did you grab a syringe?" Mr Wilson asked. Jake nodded and handed it over with the antibiotics.

Jake's mother injected the Eevee with the antibiotics.

"That's all we can really do right now," said Mr Wilson heavily, after about five minutes of work. "I'll call the Pokemon Centre in Olivine and get them to send some better help. Jake, keep an eye on the Eevee. And her cubs for that matter. Tell us if she gets any better or worse."

Jake pulled up a chair while Mr Wilson went to call for help. His mother made them all some tea in silence. Jake rested his head on his fists as he sat there, slumped in his chair over the table. Under any other circumstances, his mother would have scolded him for such bad posture. The Eevee cubs, who had been there the whole time, worrying, now curled up next to their mother. It was a position that was very similar to the position they were in when Jake first found them. He could only just see the head of the silver one poking out from beneath the mother's ruff, keeping a protective eye out, despite its diminutive size. Jake guessed (correctly) that this was a position the family often adopted in the forest. And it was in this position that the mother Eevee drew her last breath.


	2. Chapter 2

"So where are your family at the moment?" asked Jake's mother as she carried the tea into the living room.

"Thanks, Liz," Mr Wilson said as he accepted the offered tea. "They're in town, doing the shopping. Martha likes to take Rachel with her. She figures the earlier Rachel learns to do the groceries, the sooner she won't have to. I have to admit that four is a little young, but it frees up time for me to get that extra bit of work done."

Jake trudged into the room, his head down.

"She's dead."

A stony silence filled the room, as the two adults absorbed what he'd said.

"She just…stopped breathing. Just like that."

This wasn't by any means the first time Jake had seen something die. Living in a rural area, it was hard to avoid. But it was always objectified. He'd never liked it, but he never felt genuinely sad. This was different. He'd held that Eevee in his arms. He'd felt it breathing. He'd tried to help it. And he'd failed. He'd seen the way the cubs had curled up next to their mother, and he knew they'd never be able to do that again. It tore his heart.

"Jake," said his mother, reading his expression correctly, "It wasn't your fault. You did everything you could. You saved those cub's lives. If they'd been left out there they surely would have died without their mother."

"Yeah, mate, you're mother's right. You did well. Don't beat yourself up."

"But if I'd been faster-"

"The medical team from Olivine were still about ten minutes away. No-one could have been that quick."

"What if I'd had my phone?"

"I still would have had to drive out. It would have worked out the same anyway."

"Jake, we're both very proud of you for saving those cubs," said his mother soothingly. "I'm sure she was very grateful."

"Yeah, I guess. Thanks. We should probably call the Pokemon Centre and cancel that help."

Mr Wilson got up and went to the phone. Jake and his mother went into the kitchen to see how the cubs were doing. When they walked in, they were sniffing and nudging their mother. Seeing them, the little silver one bristled and growled.

"What'll we do with the cubs?" asked Jake.

"Why don't we look after them for a while?" suggested his mother. "The Greys get back in three weeks. Peter will know what to do with them after that. He might even take them in himself. He likes normal types."

"That's not a bad idea," said Mr Wilson approvingly, walking in. "That silver one's feisty, isn't he?" he said, noticing the defensive stance he'd adopted.

"Do you think we should bury her now?" asked Liz.

"No, the medical team is still going to come," replied Mr Wilson. "Cause of death, that sort of thing. Just because Eevee are endangered. That logging company may be held responsible. Those paws look as though they were crushed by a log or something. I told them that."

"It would be good if the cubs sort of… you know, realised what happened before we bury her, anyway."

They sat in silence as the silver cub relaxed and went back to nudging and sniffing its mother with its siblings. Eventually, they seemed to realise that she wouldn't answer. Jake watched with sadness as they resorted to trying to return to their position curled beneath their mother. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't force their way underneath with their mother's dead weight. First the chestnut coloured one gave up, and it curled up about a foot away. Then the slightly lighter one did the same, curling next to its sibling. Only the silver was still trying to burrow its way underneath when the team from Olivine City arrived.

"Ah, I see it had cubs," said a deeply lined woman as she bustled into the room. "Poor dears."

The words seemed automated and meaningless from the woman, who had probably seen thousands of cases like this in what appeared to have been many years. Then again, maybe the lines we're just from stress. A Chansey followed close behind, not entirely sure what to do, now that there was no-one to heal. She spotted the two curled up cubs, and tried to cheer them up.

"Your names?"

"Liz Baker, Jake Baker, and I'm Rodney Wilson."

"Ah, yes, I see what you meant, Mr Wilson," said the woman, examining the dead Eevee, "These paws have obviously been crushed by something. It doesn't look like any battle injury I've ever seen. Was it you that found her?" she inquired of Mr Wilson.

"No, it was Jake here," he said, gesturing towards the teenager, "He probably saved those three cub's lives. I just drove."

"I see. Can you describe what happened?"

Jake described in as much detail as he could manage what had happened. He was sure to include, very clearly, the blood trail that led in the direction of the loggers.

"I see. Chansey is questioning those cubs, but they're probably too young to be of any use. The logging company may be in quite some trouble. Every company whose work may potentially disrupt the environment must file a report saying that no rare or endangered species inhabit an area in which they wish to work."

"I hope they get busted for it," said Mr Wilson irritably. "Though they'll probably get off. Always a touch above the law, those companies."

"About the cubs," questioned the lady, "If they were found on your property I can find no reason for you not to keep them, but if you don't want to, we can take them and put them in a sanctuary."

"No, that'll be alright," replied Mr Wilson. "I think we decided Jake and Liz would keep them for a few weeks until Peter Grey, who lives on the property next to mine, comes back from vacation. He was a gym leader who specialised in normal types over in Hoenn, so he should know what to do."

"Very well, then. Because they're endangered, one of you'll have to go to Olivine and get them registered. When does your friend Mr Grey return?"

"Three weeks. Well, just under," replied Liz.

"Alright, I suppose it can wait until then," replied the elderly woman, a kind smile flittering across her face. "You'd best think up some names, Mr Baker. They'll need them for registration."

"Um, OK, I'll think about some."

"Good. Three weeks, come to the Centre, we'll get it all sorted out."

* * *

The cubs took a while to settle in to their new home. The people from the Olivine Pokemon Centre had taken some pictures of the mother as evidence, allowing Jake and Liz to bury her. Mr Wilson and his family came to watch and help. The cubs simply sat and watched as their mother was buried. Jake thought it was strange that they hadn't tried to run away. He thought they might be reluctant to go anywhere without their mother's protection.

The two brown cubs had been fairly trusting of Jake and his mother. Once, the chestnut coloured one, which he'd aptly named, "Chestnut", had even curled up next to his arm, like it did with its mother. He wasn't sure of the genders of the three cubs, so he'd tried to go for non-gender specific names. He'd named the light brown one, "Lemon", but was still undecided about the feisty silver one. He wasn't sure if the silver one was younger than Chestnut and Lemon, or just naturally smaller. It definitely made up for any lack of size with sheer determination and aggression. It wasn't uncommon for Chestnut or Lemon to pick a fight with it, only to cop a quick, hard paw to the head. As young as they were, this was enough to end the fight. Jake noticed that no matter how much fighting went on during the day, they always curled up next to each other at night.

Jake had built a comfortable pen for the cubs to sleep in, with help from Mr Wilson. They had emailed Peter in Hoenn and told him the story about the Eevees. He'd offered to return early to look after them, but Liz wouldn't hear it. Instead, he gave them as much information on caring for Eevees as he could remember. He'd once raised one from birth, apparently, but then gave him to a breeding program once he reached a mature age.

In just two weeks, the cubs had tripled in size. They seemed to trust Jake and his mother enough not to run away. Jake had learned a fair bit about the cubs' personalities in this time. It seemed that Chestnut was the most trusting of their new carers. Jake had been pleasantly surprised when, while lying on the couch watching TV one day, Chestnut had jumped on the couch and curled up next to him for a nap. Seeing this, Lemon, who seemed to follow Chestnut around a lot, jumped on too. The silver one, who still didn't have a name, stayed exactly where it was. It was still cautious about Jake and his mother, but no longer growled at them, and accepted their presence with a careful calm.

By the time the Grey's returned from their vacation, Chestnut and Lemon were both about a foot long and half a foot tall. The silver one was just under a foot long, and a little less tall. Chestnut and Lemon both called happily every time Jake returned from his run, and Lemon seemed to have developed a genuine trust of him, rather than just following Chestnut.

Jake and Liz took the Eevees over to the Grey's house the day after they got back. Peter quickly identified both Chestnut and the silver one as male, while Lemon was female. Jake had no idea how he could tell, but he took his word for it. Simon and Chris seemed entirely uninterested by the pokemon, and went upstairs to play their videogames. Jake, Liz, Peter and his wife Marie sat and discussed the future of the pokemon.

"Well, if you want me to take them, I will," said Peter. "I've raised them before. Norman might want to keep them at his gym. We could even hand them over to a sanctuary or a breeding program. Females are quite rare, you know."

"I don't know about captivity," said Liz. "It seems cruel, even if it does increase their numbers."

"I agree," piped in Marie. "I've seen some of the worse ones. You wouldn't like to send them to one of those unless you absolutely had to."

"They seem to have become attached to Jake too," said Peter, watching Jake stroking Chestnut in his lap. "And he, them. You know, Jake, you could raise them."

At this, Jake looked up.

"You could even go on a journey with them. I'm sure they would like that."

"What, you mean like what you did?" asked Jake, shocked. "As a trainer?"

"If you want to."

"Mum?"

"I suppose," said Liz carefully. Somehow she knew this day would come. "Many kids start even younger. We'll talk about it."

"That's a good idea," said Peter. "Make sure it's what you really want to do." Peter knew it was only a formality. He had seen the gleam in the boy's eye when he'd hear about his adventures. It was the same gleam he'd had at his age.

A large part of the rest of the afternoon was spent talking about what he may or may not do on his journey. What he was and wasn't allowed to do. His mother had a great deal to say on that topic. About halfway through, Simon came down to find out what was going on. When he heard that Jake was going to become a trainer ("Maybe!" his mother insisted), a flicker of jealousy crossed his face, though that was something he would never admit to. He went upstairs with a casual, "Whatever," and the group got back to talking.

"Jake, have you thought up a name for the little one yet?" asked Liz.

"We have to go get them registered tomorrow," explained Jake. "I can't think of a name for him."

"How about just, "Silver", or something like that," suggested Marie. "Silvo or Silvio or something."

"Silvio sounds good," Jake interrupted. "I like that. I think that's what I'll call him. Silvio."

With that decided, they caught up on what the vacation was like, and what they did. Jake didn't pay much attention. He was too preoccupied with the thought of finally becoming a trainer.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Liz, Peter and Jake set off for Olivine. He'd managed to convince his mother to let him become a trainer. Peter had offered to give him some of his pokeballs, in which he could keep the three Eevees and catch some more pokemon. If he wanted to, that is. For the moment, Jake was happy with just Chestnut, Lemon and Silvio. He was worried that Silvio would not want to come with him, or that he wouldn't get in the ball. He had little doubt about Chestnut and Lemon. He'd actually told them about the journey he was planning to take. They seemed to understand him, and Chestnut and Lemon appeared excited. Silvio was quieter, and while not reluctant, was less than enthused by the idea.

They were going to get the pokemon registered before he officially captured them. There was some procedure for capturing rare species which would be by-passed if they were registered first. They were also going to try to get Jake registered as a trainer. Usually, this took weeks, or even months, if you were unlucky, but Peter said he could probably get it down to a few days, or a week at most. His previous job as a Gym Leader, even though it was in a different region, made him an honorary member of the Pokemon League.

The registration of the Eevees only took fifteen minutes once they arrived at the Pokemon Centre in Olivine City. They took DNA samples and photos, and asked Jake to fill out some forms, which included their name, colour and the area that they were found in. Next, they inquired about trainer registration. The nurse pointed them out to a corner where there was a desk and a pile of forms. Jake took one and filled it in. He was also instructed to have his photo taken at a photo booth which was standing next to him. He handed the form and the photo to the nurse, who filed them away, and payed the small registration fee. Jake wasn't very satisfied. He'd expected some kind of urgency in dealing with the application. He was informed that if the application was approved, he would be sent a letter informing him that this was the case, and he would come back to the Pokemon Centre to pick up his Pokedex and a small kit of supplies essential for serious trainers. While it was legally possible for someone to train pokemon for battling without official recognition, few did that because they did not receive a pokedex, nor did they get some special privileges that only official trainers received. So Jake was happy to wait for his application to be approved, if a little impatient.

True to Peter's word, Jake received his letter only five days after he applied. It was the most excited he'd ever been.

"Mum, I've got it! I've got the letter!"

"OK, OK, so I guess you want to go into Olivine immediately," said Liz, exasperated and a little sad, but happy for her son.

"Yeah, they said all my stuff's there, waiting for me," said Jake, the excitement on his face clear. The last five days had just served to increase his desire to get outside and explore the world with his pokemon. He knew he couldn't go immediately, because Peter had promised to show him how to use some of his gear when they got back. But just getting the gear was enough for the moment.

He grabbed the pokeballs which he'd used to catch his pokemon, and rounded them up. He raced in the car, and waited while his mother got ready to go.

When they arrived at Olivine, Jake dashed inside, only just stopping to let the sliding doors open, before making a beeline for the front desk. He felt like a little kid again.

"Hi, I'm Jake Baker," he said breathlessly. "I just got a letter to become a trainer."

"Ah, yes Mr Baker. Your gear is right here."

The nurse reached under the desk and pulled out a black plastic box with the Pokemon League logo on the front. She handed it to Jake.

"That has all you need: A Pokedex, some potions and other medicine, a magnetic pokeball belt, a tent and cooking gear, and your own personal ID card. You can program your Pokedex to display all that information, in case you lose it. If you lose both, you have to apply for a new one. Also, for a limited time, you receive a free TM."

"Which one?"

"It's random. You get one of the fifty of Johto. Hope you get one you like," the nurse said, sounding as if she couldn't really care less.

She turned to the next person. Jake turned and left in a daze. He couldn't believe was an officially recognised trainer. He released his pokemon and showed them the gear. Once again, Silvio was far less enthusiastic than the other two, but he did seem interested in the TM.

"Careful, Silvio," Jake said, noticing Silvio nudging the box. "I don't know how that works. You could end up with a move you don't want."

He returned Chestnut and Silvio, as he and Lemon got into the car. Chestnut and Silvio both got sick in the car, but Lemon seemed to enjoy it. She liked sticking her head out the window and feeling the wind on her face, so he left her out. All three of them seemed to enjoy spending time outside their pokeballs, but Silvio seemed to particularly dislike his pokeball. The only time Jake kept him in his pokeball was when they were in the car. Silvio more or less obeyed Jake, at least as far as following him went. Jake was unsure how easy he would be to battle with. Although, Jake thought, he was surprisingly willing to be captured. Jake had simply opened the ball and tapped it against him, like Peter had shown him. He didn't try to resist any more than his siblings. Maybe he would be easier to train than he seemed.

Jake insisted that they go straight to the Grey's without stopping at home. Liz called them and asked if that would be alright. Peter didn't mind, and seemed almost as excited as Jake. Jake was really looking forward to seeing how all these gadgets worked, and the best ways to use them.

They arrived at the Grey's and rang the doorbell. Marie opened the door and ushered them inside. She offered them some lunch while they waited for Peter, who was just digging up some of his old gear to show Jake. They discussed when he'd leave, and where he would go. Jake and Liz had agreed that there was little point waiting. Jake would take a few days to prepare, and then set off from Olivine.

"Ah, so you're here, Jake," said Peter, as he came down the stairs. "Excited?"

"You bet, Mr Grey," replied Jake, clearly telling the truth.

"Please, Jake, I don't know how many times I've told you to call me Peter," Peter exclaimed. "He's too polite, this boy. The other day Rod was telling me how he'd asked for a lift when he ran into him with the injured Eevee. He couldn't believe it. He was prepared to walk all that way with those Eevees so long as he didn't trouble Rod."

This drew laughs from everyone, and a blush from Jake.

"Anyway," continued Peter, "Let's see what the League gives new trainers these days."

Jake pulled out the black box he'd received at the Pokemon Centre, and opened it again. Peter was impressed when he saw the TM Jake had received.

"That's a good idea," he said. "It can be tough for trainers starting out with pokemon that don't know many moves."

He examined the packaging, and discovered it was TM 30, Shadow Ball. He'd said that it was a good one, and he was lucky, but don't try using it against a Normal type. He went on to explain the different types and which moves were effective against them.

"If you're ever unsure about a pokemon's type, check it in the Pokedex. There's an official database of types and classifications which can be accessed through it. Speaking of which, can I see your Pokedex?"

Jake found it and handed it over.

"I've never seen one of these before," said Peter with surprise. "It must be a new model. You're lucky, you know. When I first started out, all they had was a book. Here, I'll set it up for you."

Jake watched as Peter inserted the card into a slot in the side of the Pokedex. He hit a few buttons and it beeped softly.

"OK, now it has all your trainer information. But try not to lose the card, if you can help it."

Apparently, the kit was pretty comprehensive. Peter was going to show Jake his Pokenav, but the new model Pokedex already incorporated the technology. Peter still showed him how to use it, however, showing him the map and the GPS system. He'd stressed the importance of knowing exactly where you were at all times, so as to not get lost. Peter was impressed to see that the kits now came with a tent and mess kit, though he advised Jake to invest in a better quality tent when he had the chance. He also showed him how to use the magnetic belt. When the pokeball was pressed against one of the six indents, it activated the magnet, keeping the pokeball in place. He also told him to mark his pokeballs, so he knew which pokemon was which. He went on to explain the use of potions, and how you could buy more potent versions, as well as specialised medicines for poisoning, paralysis, burns, etc.

Finally, he asked, "So who are you planning to use the TM on?"

Jake thought about it for a few seconds.

"I don't know. Wouldn't it kinda seem like favouritism if I chose one over the other two?"

"I can see what you mean," said Peter, thinking. "I tell you what. I'll give you two more TMs, so you can use one on each."

"Are you serious?" asked Jake, stunned, once again, by his generosity. TMs could be expensive.

"Of course," said Peter with a smile. "I have a stash left over from my Gym Leader days, and I get them for wholesale prices from the League. It's no problem, honestly."

"Well, yeah, thanks. Though you're going to have to show me how to use them."

"Of course. I'll go and grab some and you can choose two that you like. Or three if you want, if you don't like Shadow Ball."

Peter went back upstairs. By this time, Liz and Marie had gone outside to leave the boys to it, so Jake sat in silence, still not quite believing he was now a trainer. Receiving his gear had done nothing to quench his excitement. In fact, it had done the exact opposite, leaving him dying to go and try it out. Peter returned, his arms full of the small packages in which TMs were held. He went on to explain which moves were taught by which TM. He had TMs from Kanto and Hoenn, as well as Johto, and there were two that caught Jake's eye. These were TM08, from Kanto, which was Body Slam, and TM 28, which was Dig. Peter told him to take the Hoenn version, which was updated to work on a greater variety of pokemon, Eevee included.

Peter then explained how to use them. Jake wasn't sure which TM to use on which pokemon, so Peter used one on his own Vigoroth. He inserted a disc into the device which came with it, and aligned it with the right eye of his Vigoroth. He activated it, and Jake watched as light pulses were shone into the pokemon's eye. After about ten seconds, the process ended.

"Vigoroth now knows how to use Earthquake," Peter explained. "It's a pretty simple process. The information for the move is encoded into pulses of light, which are interpreted by the pokemon's brain. He'll need to practise the move before it's as effective as it could be, though," he said as he patted the Vigoroth fondly.

"Oh, and I almost forgot. If you want to catch a water type, you may need a rod. I've got plenty, so you can have one of mine. You might choose to evolve one of your Eevee into a Vaporeon with a Water Stone, but it'll be good to have one anyway."

Once again, Jake thanked Peter profusely for his generosity, and once again, Peter would have none of it.

Jake spent the rest of the day with Simon and Chris. Even they couldn't annoy him today. He didn't even notice the taunts from Chris when the younger boy beat him at whatever videogame they were playing. He was thinking ahead, to when he would finally set off on his journey.


	4. Chapter 4

Jake set off on his journey a couple of days after he officially became a trainer. It was as if it took him those days to finally get the courage to leave. As much as he wanted to go, he knew he'd miss his mother, and the furthest away he'd ever been without her was Olivine, when he stayed with a school friend for a week. But he was happy, and confident he could do it. Peter had done him the courtesy of destroying him in a battle, despite using his weakest pokemon, a young Rattata. Jake had decided to battle with Lemon first. He frankly had no idea what to do. Peter gave him some tips as they battled, and as Jake grew more confident in calling out moves he discovered that Lemon was quite speedy, and often got attacks in quicker than the Rattata. Peter commented that this was impressive, as Rattatas are known for their speed. The attacks lacked power, however, and soon Lemon was too tired to fight. The next pokemon he used was Chestnut. Chestnut was not as fast as Lemon, so he could not land as many attacks. Each attack seemed to do more damage, however, as by this stage Chestnut had grown a little bigger and stronger than Lemon. Pretty soon, however, Chestnut also tired, and Jake recalled him. He was still not sure what to expect from Silvio. He just hoped he'd fight. As soon as he was released, Silvio started growling fiercely at the Rattata. Each attack he landed seemed to do more damage than either Chesnut or Lemon could manage, despite his smaller size, purely because of the sheer force he used. This left Silvio's defences down, however, and eventually the Rattata clamped his jaws around him. Jake returned Silvio before the Rattata could do any serious harm.

Jake had lost a bit of confidence after that battle, but Peter told him that he was impressed. He assured Jake that he was a lot stronger than most of the new trainers he'd be facing, and not to worry: training and experience would help him win more battles.

So now Jake was on his way to Ecruteak City, walking along the side of the road, Silvio and Lemon walking, Chestnut on his shoulder. He was a little bit annoyed that the largest of his pokemon decided to be the one to perch on his shoulder, but he didn't really mind. Apparently, Eevees were good climbers and had tremendous balance, as Chestnut would climb up Jake's leg and torso while he was moving, and stay there, even once when Jake tripped on a root and fell, nearly squashing Silvio. The little Eevee looked affronted for a moment, before continuing to walk three steps in front of the others.

Jake was once again raring to have a battle, his disappointment at losing so heavily to Peter gone. He'd battled against a few wild pokemon already, and had even considered catching one, another Rattata, but decided three pokemon were enough for the time being. He was still not sure which TMs to use on which pokemon, though he noticed Silvio sniffing around his TMs when they stopped for a short rest.

After a while he saw another trainer up ahead, a guy about his age. He was slightly shorter than Jake, and had dark hair. He was wearing a dark green cap and a red shirt with jeans. Jake had been walking for three hours, and he was hot and sweaty, but he didn't care. He wanted to battle.

"Hey, you!" Jake called, trying to get his attention. "Want to battle?"

"Yeah, alright," the guy said as they got closer. Then he noticed Jake's Eevees.

"Wow, three Eevees! And one of them's silver! Do you know how rare that is!"

Jake nodded, and told a greatly abbreviated version of how he came to have them, and become a trainer.

"Wow. I guess you're not a very strong trainer then. No offence," he said quickly as he saw the look on Jake's face, "it's just that I've been a trainer for a couple of years, while you have for a day. I've even got a badge," he said proudly as he showed it to Jake. "Got it in Violet City. That's one of the easiest Gyms in Johto, though. The League regulates how tough they can be. My name's Sam, by the way. Sam Wilson."

"Any relation to Rodney Wilson?" Jake asked, surprised by the name.

"The farmer?"

Jake nodded

"Yeah, he's a distant relative. My dad's second cousin or something. Not entirely sure, but I've visited his farm once."

"He helped me rescue my Eevees' mother," Jake told him. "I live, or used to live, I guess, a couple of properties over from him."

"Oh yeah, near Olivine. I guess that's why you're here on your first day."

"So, are you sure you don't want to battle?" Jake asked hopefully.

"No, mate. Even with my weakest pokemon I'd kick your arse."

"Try me," Jake challenged. "You might be surprised. Show us your weakest pokemon, and we'll see."

Sam reached for a pokeball and released a small, black pokemon Jake had never seen before. Although it was small, it was still considerably larger than his pokemon. He rummaged around in his bag for his Pokedex, and pointed it at the pokemon. It told him that it was called a Poochyena, and it could be very aggressive.

"I spent a bit of time in the Hoenn region, and picked this guy up before I left," Sam explained. "I haven't started training him yet. Actually, this could be a good opportunity for him to get some experience."

"So you'll battle us then?" asked Jake hopefully.

"Yeah, alright, if you really want to. One-on-one, let's go."

They each took a few steps back. He consulted his pokedex for some more in-depth information on Poochyenas. Apparently they had quite poor defenses, but were quite strong and powerful for their size. He decided Chestnut would be the best to fight him.

"Alright, Chestnut, you're up. Try not to let him hit you, 'cause he'll do a fair bit of damage."

Chestnut grunted in response, and took up a defensive position.

"Alright, Pooch, tackle him."

"Dodge him and use Tail Whip."

Chestnut didn't quite dodge in time, and caught a glancing blow from the dog, but he managed to fill the Poochyena's face with quite a lot of fur as the tail whip landed. This disorientated the opponent, and allowed Chestnut to land a full blooded tackle.

"Wow, that was an impressive combination. Have you taught him to do that already?"

Jake just shrugged. Chestnut had tackled the Poochyena without even being asked. He looked at Sam's pokemon, and saw that while it was a little flustered, it wasn't seriously hurt.

"Alright, Pooch, bite it!"

"The same as before, Chestnut."

This time, Chestnut managed to dodge completely, but as the tail came to hit Poochyena's face, the dog pokemon bit down, and hard. Chestnut scratched and tore at the Poochyena, and finally it let go, but the Eevee was hurt. He seemed to be OK, though, so Jake let the battle continue. Chestnut managed to land a few more tackles of his own, and the Poochyena was looking tired, until it managed to close its jaws on some skin on Chestnut's back. The poor Eevee couldn't reach the dog from his position, so he called him back into his pokeball to rest. Sam did the same.

"Good job, Chestnut. That was a good little move you thought up there."

"That was impressive, Jake," said Sam, a thoughtful look on his face. "For your first trainer battle, it really was."

"Well, second, actually," Jake corrected. "I had one before I left, but I got thrashed."

"It was still impressive. You almost had me beat. A couple more tackles and I might have seriously considered returning him."

"Thanks."

"You should have him checked out at a Pokemon Centre, by the way," Sam added, gesturing to the pokeball on Jake's belt that contained Chestnut. "Not immediately, but sometime in the near future. Pooch bit a little harder than I would have liked when he got Chestnut's tail. It might be damaged. I doubt it, but I've seen it happen before."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," said Jake, starting to feel worried.

"Hey, don't feel guilty or anything," said Sam, seeing the look on Jake's face. "Injuries happen all the time, and pokemon enjoy battling."

"Yeah, I know. I'm just a little worried, that's all."

"Anyway, where are you headed?"

"Ecruteak City, I guess. It's pretty close, and it's as good a place to go as any."

"How would you like to come with me? I could help teach you what it's like being a trainer. I travelled with my cousin for the first six months or so. He had already been a trainer for three years when I was with him, and had a couple of badges. This was in Kanto, by the way. It helped a lot."

"Yeah, sure, if that's alright," said Jake, excited by the offer. "I was thinking it might get a little boring on my own."

"Great, then it's settled," said Sam, obviously pleased. "I was actually coming from Ecruteak, and there's not much to do there at the moment."

"Why not?"

"Bad timing, I guess. They aren't doing any tours of the burnt tower at the moment, and the Gym Leader is out of town, so you can't watch any good battles. Even the local dance company's on tour. We can always come back, though."

"So where do you suggest we go?"

"Goldenrod's close, and there's always something to do there," said Sam. "You'll be able to find some trainers about your level too, so you and your pokemon can gain some experience."

"Well, you're the boss," said Jake, happy that he was with someone who knew what he was doing.

They arrived at Goldenrod City late in the afternoon, after a couple of days walk. They checked into a Pokemon Centre there, dumped their gear, and got cleaned up. It was too late to be able to go anywhere in the city, but too early for dinner, Jake and Sam sat in their room for an hour or so, releasing their pokemon, watching TV and talking. Jake told Sam a more comprehensive version of how he met the Eevees, and told him a bit about them. Jake had checked all three of his pokemon into the Centre to be healed, and took Sam's advice and asked the Nurse to check for damage to Chestnut's tail. Consequently, he got the other two back before him, so they were playing (or fighting, Jake couldn't tell) on the floor. Sam had told him about his pokemon as well. He had a Grolithe, which was his starter, a Scyther, a Diglett, as well as the Poochyena he'd battled with earlier. He had caught the Scyther at the Safari Zone in Fuschia City, as well as a Tauros, but he'd traded the Tauros for the Diglett. When Jake asked why he'd trade a Tauros for a Diglett, Sam explained that he was in Johto by that time, where Tauros are comparatively common, compared to Digletts, and that Digletts evolve into Dugtrios, which he would prefer over a Tauros. In fact, as he pointed out, they had just passed through a region that had plenty of wild Tauros', if you knew where to look.

"Do you plan on evolving Growlithe soon?" Jake asked after seeing an Arcanine on TV.

"Not for a while," Jake responded after a moment. "I don't think I'd be good enough to handle an Arcanine, for one. Besides, I'd have to get my hands on a Fire Stone. They only sell them in Kanto, because they've got some mine there or something. And even there, they're bloody expensive. I wouldn't have the money."

"Yeah. Well I've got three pokemon that eveolve with stones. How do you think I feel?"

"Poor?" answered Sam, before chuckling. "Don't worry about it. Besides, they can evolve without stones. Something about happiness. I don't know too much about Eevee evolutions."

Jake checked his Pokedex. It said that Eevees can potentially evolve into five different species: Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Espeon, and Umbreon. He'd been aware of Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon, and knew vaguely about Espeon and Umbreon, but was surprised to discover that Eevee evolved into the latter two through a combination of happiness and the time of day. He'd never heard of anything like it before, but trusted it was true.

"So, you wanna get some dinner?" Sam asked Jake. "We could eat here for free, but I know a good place. Expensive though."

"Let's just eat here. I'm too tired to explore the city anyway."

"Yeah. All this talk about stones we can't afford has left me feeling poor. Maybe tomorrow we'll find some battles and earn some money."

"Is that how trainers earn money?" Jake asked with interest.

"Pretty much. We can't exactly hold down a regular job, travelling all around. Some trainers are employed to sell things where they travel, but you don't want to do that. That's really for the trainers who couldn't win a battle to save their life, so go broke. Oh, yeah, organised competitions usually have pretty hefty cash prizes."

"Wow. Who funds it all?" asked Jake, confused.

"The Pokemon League, mostly. There are a few well known private competitions as well, but whether official or private, it's all driven by advertising. The League can also fund Pokemon Centres and other services because they have a monopoly on the sale of Pokeballs, as well as a few other items. They also sell merchandise, and, believe it or not, get a fair bit from the registration fee they charge. Though, come to think about it, they would cover the wholesale price of that trainer's kit they gave you."

"So, in just an ordinary trainer battle, you're supposed to win money, right?"

"Yeah, that's what I said."

"Why didn't you ask for some from me, when you beat me," asked Jake, confused.

"Because I knew I was going to win. And it was your first day. It didn't seem fair."

"Oh. That was nice of you. You couldn't have got much if you tried, anyway."

"Well, that's why we're going to earn some tomorrow. But right now, I'm starving. Let's eat."

The food, while not exactly world class, did the job, and soon Jake and Sam, as well as their pokemon, were full to the point of bursting. While they were down there, a nurse brought Chestnut over. There was no permanent damage done, and he was just fine. Jake had thanked the nurse, and released Chestnut. He watched as he mingled with the others. He seemed to command a little more respect from the others now that he'd been in a trainer battle. They had only met a few trainers on the way to Goldenrod, all of which had been too strong for Jake, but too weak, or in one case too strong even for Sam. Sam was surprised there were so few, even in the towns they passed through.

Soon, they were both ready to head back up to their room. Jake was superbly fit, what with his ritual of running in the morning at home, but three days walking had tired him out. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

The next day, the duo decided to go get some breakfast at a café Sam knew. The food was good, and not too expensive. Sam took care of the bill, since he had more money, and more of a chance of making money today. Next they headed to a shopping mall, to buy some more supplies. Jake was careful with his money, investing in some extra potions, antidotes, and paralysis cures. He had been thinking about the TMs that were still in his bag, and, after some wild battles with his pokemon, had decided what to do with them. He was going to teach Body Slam to Lemon, as he felt that she needed a bit of a stronger attack compared to the other two. He was going to teach Chestnut Dig, as, while he was big and powerful, he was a little slow, and Jake felt that if he could move underground, he'd be able to sneak up on enemies, rather than rely purely on speed. He decided to teach Shadow Ball to Silvio because his main weakness was his defence in-close. Being able to attack from a distance would be a great advantage to have.

Jake had discussed his decisions with Sam over breakfast, and he'd agreed with him. They decided that after shopping for supplies, Jake would teach his pokemon the moves.

They finished their shopping, and Jake went back to the Pokemon Centre, where he'd left most of his stuff, including his TMs. Sam said he'd look for a competition, and call Jake when he found one.

He got into the room, and rummaged through his bags for the TMs. He could remember what Peter had shown him about TMs, but he read the instructions carefully anyway. He looked at the first one he'd picked out. It said 28-Dig on the side, and had the Hoenn stamp.

"OK Chestnut, you're up."

Chestnut jumped on to the bed Jake was sitting on. Jake tore the packaging off, and inserted the disc into the device.

"Alright, Chestnut, hold still," Jake said nervously

He lined up the device with Chestnut's eye, just like he'd seen Peter do to his Vigoroth. He pushed the button. Light pulses flickered on and off into Chestnut's eye, but he wasn't irritated by them at all. After about ten seconds, the device switched off, and the disc ejected. He knew they were both useless now, but he'd been told by Sam to drop them off at the Pokemon Centre's front desk, for reuse.

"OK," Jake said with trepidation. "Let's see if it worked."

They all went outside, and Jake asked Chestnut to go underground, go a few feet, and then resurface. Chestnut did it without any major problems. Jake was hoping he'd be able to move faster underground than he had, but then remembered what Peter had said about it taking a while for pokemon to perfect the moves.

He repeated the process for Lemon and Silvio, and experimented with their new moves. Lemon's Body Slam was a little wonky, and she almost missed the bag Jake had placed on the bed as a target. He took them all outside again to see what Silvio could do with his new move. Again, results weren't perfect, but Jake was impressed by the power of the Shadow Balls Silvio was casting. He asked Silvio to aim for a tree about a hundred feet from where they were standing. He hit the one next to it, which was about ten feet to the left, but he blew a large patch of bark right of. For an Eevee of his size and experience, these were great results.

Just as he was testing out Lemon's Body Slam for the fourteenth time, he got a call from Sam. Apparently, he'd found a good local competition. He gave Jake directions, telling him to catch a cab to get there. While Jake wasn't going to enter the competition itself, there would be plenty of new trainers who would be watching, and would be willing to battle him.

He arrived at the spot, and saw Sam emerge from the crowd and jog over to him.

"Finally. I thought you'd never get here. Great news. There are a bunch of GPA students here to watch the competition. They'd be a good match, and good money.

"GPA?" asked Jake, confusion written all over his face.

"Goldenrod Pokemon Academy. With your TMs you should win most of the battles. And even if you don't, you don't have much to lose. Go for it."

"Alright," said Jake nervously. "Are you going to enter the competition," he asked Sam.

"No, this one's exclusively for advanced trainers. I know what I'm doing when it comes to pokemon battling, but I'm nothing compared to these guys. I'm going to do the same as you, find some spectators."

Jake followed Sam back through the crowd, and they walked into an open park area. A temporary battlefield had been set up on the grass, with some seating around it. He noticed the crowd was formed by people lining up either to enter the competition, or buy food and drinks. Sam spotted the GPA kids, and led Jake over to them.

"Go challenge one of them," prompted Sam.

"Uh, how?" said Jake, nervous. "What do I say?"

"Just do what you did when you challenged me."

Jake shrugged, and picked out a likely looking student.

"Hey you!" he called. "Want to battle?"

The boy turned, and nodded. Jake saw that he was about fourteen.

"How much?" he asked. "Rupert, by the way."

Jake shook his hand.

"I'm Jake. I've only got 110 bucks," said Jake, checking his wallet. "That's why I'm here. How about 30?"

"A little low, but it'll do," said Rupert with disdain.

They took a few steps back, and faced each other.

"Two each sound good?" Rupert asked.

"Yeah, that's fine," said Jake, assuming he meant pokemon. "Can you go first? I'm new to this."

"30 bucks, here we come," Jake heard Rupert say under his breath. He grabbed a pokeball, and sent out a Bulbasaur.

Jake decided to give Lemon a go. He found her pokeball, which he'd finally got around to marking, and released her.

"Alright, Lemon, get in close and use Body Slam."

"Bulbasaur, catch it with your vines!"

Lemon managed to avoid the vines that were flung her way, but they put her off balance, and this, combined with her inexperience with move, caused her to miss her opponent by a good foot.

"Again, Lemon."

"You too, Bulbasaur."

This time, Lemon's attack hit, and did quite a lot of damage, but she couldn't get away in time before one of the Bulbasaur's vines wrapped itself around her back legs. She gnawed at it for a second, and just as the second vine was coming to grab her front legs, she broke free.

"That was good, Lemon. Keep circling Bulbasaur. Make sure it doesn't get you with the vines. Attack when you see an opening."

At this, Rupert looked up, surprised by the order. He'd never trust his pokemon to make that kind of decision in the heat of battle. He'd trained them to do exactly as he ordered. Which was why his Bulbasaur had no idea what to do when Lemon suddenly darted in and Body Slammed it.

"Crap!" shouted Rupert as he saw what happened. "C'mon, Bulbasaur, get up."

The battered pokemon tried to keep fighting, but in the end, Rupert realised it was no use. He returned Bulbasaur, and placed him back on his belt.

"Maybe you should keep your eyes on the battle," suggested Jake, a small smile on his face. He had decided he didn't like Rupert.

"We'll see," said Rupert, reaching for another pokeball. "Meditite, go!"

Jake had seen a picture of one of these pokemon before, but couldn't that was all. He checked his Pokedex, which told him that it was a fighting/psychic pokemon.

"Let's see how you like a fighting type against your normal type," taunted Rupert.

"I don't," said Jake, returning Lemon. She was tired from all the running, and Jake remembered what Peter said about the fighting type's advantage over normal types. He also remembered what he said about ghost types against psychics.

"Go, Silvio!"

Silvio materialised, and immediately started growling. By this time the battle had attracted a small crowd, and there were small gasps and mutterings as they saw that Jake had two Eevees, and this one was silver. They, as well as Rupert, were also confused about his decision to switch out one Eevee for another.

"Ah, you do know that you can't use your other Eevee, now, right?" asked Rupert, not entirely sure what was going on. Jake didn't know that, but he wasn't planning to use Lemon again anyway, so he just nodded.

"Whatever. Meditite, finish this now. Brick Break!"

Jake didn't have to tell Silvio to dodge. Nor did he have to tell him to Tail Whip his opponent as it passed, before tackling and scratching it while it was disoriented. He'd worked on that move which he'd first seen Chestnut use against Sam's Poochyena with all of his Eevees in the various wild battles they'd had on the way to Goldenrod. Silvio also knew to break off before his opponent could strike back.

"Great, Silvio. Just stay on the defensive for a while. Don't let him get you, just chip away." Rupert kept repeating the same attack over and over again, each time with the same result as the first. Jake wasn't sure how effective Shadow Ball would be in battle, especially since he'd only just taught it to Silvio. He didn't want to give away the surprise too early.

"You know, you really should teach your pokemon some TMs," suggested Rupert tauntingly, "because you've got a pretty one-dimensional team."

Jake smiled at the irony. "Eyes on the battle, mate."

Rupert quickly looked down at the battle again, and Jake chuckled.

At one point, the battle seemed to lull, with both pokemon trying to catch their breath. Jake took this opportunity to unveil Shadow Ball.

"Alright, Silvio, hit him where it hurts. Shadow Ball."

He saw Rupert's eyes widen as the black ball hurtled towards his Meditite. There was nothing he could do. It hit, and threw the Meditite back about 20 feet. The battle was over. Jake had won.

Rupert returned his pokemon, and handed the money over, before storming off in a huff. Sam congratulated him.

"That was awesome, man. Silvio's got a real powerful Shadow Ball."

"Yeah, I know," said Jake, unable to keep the smile off his face. "Inaccurate though. We were lucky it hit. If it hadn't, he would have been ready for it when it came again."

Jake healed his pokemon at the portable machine they'd had installed for the competition, while Sam went to find a battle of his own. He looked at his winnings. It wasn't a lot, but it was proof that he'd won his first pokemon battle.


	5. Chapter 5

Overall, both Sam and Jake had pretty successful days. They both left with more money than they came with, and their pokemon, especially Jake's, we're a lot better for the experience. Jake had been far more successful than he'd expected against the GPA students, and even faced some slightly more advanced trainers. He only lost four battles out of eleven, two of which were one-on-ones against fighting types. One of these, against a Machop, he'd almost won. His opponent, a girl slightly older than him who was not a GPA student, was so impressed that she let him keep his money anyway. As a result, Jake had now more than tripled his money, going from $110 to $370. Sam fared equally well, fighting tougher opponents for more money. He only lost two from eight battles, and was also feeling considerably richer.

The two boys decided to eat out that night, to celebrate their success. They ate at the place Sam had suggested the night before. While they were there, they saw some of the trainers they'd battled earlier. One of them, a girl about their age with darkish blonde hair and a nice face came over. Sam had thrashed her earlier that day, but Jake had the feeling, just by watching their battle, that she would be able to thrash him if she got the chance.

"Hey, Sam, was it?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yeah, that's right," Sam replied, trying in turn to remember her name. "Jess, right?"

She nodded, and Sam offered her a seat.

"This is Jake, by the way," introduced Sam.

"I saw you battling today," she said to Jake. "You were good. Is it true you only started four days ago?"

"Uh, yeah," he said, embarrassed at the compliment. "I wasn't that good. I only fought weak trainers. I saw you two battling. You would have kicked my arse."

"Yeah, probably, but I've been a trainer for more than a year now," she replied. "No badges, though, unfortunately."

"Hey, it took me more than eighteen months," said Sam. "I've only got one, and it's from Violet City."

Jess wrinkled up her nose at that.

"Violet City's got the easiest Gym in Johto," she laughed.

"I pretty much did it with one pokemon," he protested. "My other two were a bug type and a ground type. Useless against flying types. Anyway, I'm thinking about challenging the Goldenrod Gym while I'm here. I heard some people today saying that it's not too hard, but a couple of steps up from Violet City."

"That's not a bad idea. So where are you guys off to next?" she asked.

Jake looked at Sam, and they both shrugged. They hadn't really thought about it.

"Maybe Azalea town?" Sam suggested. "If I don't beat Whitney at the Gym I could always go for that one. Growlithe would like it. It's a bug type Gym."

"Sounds fine to me," said Jake.

"I'm off to Olivine tomorrow," said Jess. "I'm going to catch a ship over to Hoenn."

"Hey, I've been there," said Sam. "It's a good place for catching pokemon. A whole lot of pokemon you don't find here, because it's isolated by water."

"Yeah, that's why I'm going. Only having two pokemon can be limiting."

Jess had a Bellsprout and a Jynx, which were defeated by Sam's Scyther and Growlithe respectively.

"Well, if we ever find ourselves in Hoenn, why don't we get in touch," suggested Sam. "What's your phone number?"

They all exchanged phone numbers, and then Jess went back to her friends.

"She was nice," commented Jake.

"Hot, too," replied Sam, and they both chuckled.

"So how long do you want stay here before we leave?"

"A couple of weeks, maybe three," suggested Sam. "We could even get some part time work for that time, but I doubt it. Besides, who wants to work?"

"What'll we do while we're here?" asked Jake. He really had no idea.

"Train, battle, that sort of thing. You still need to make some more money. But staying in cities like this is fun. We can relax, or go out with people we meet, that sort of thing."

They agreed to stay for three weeks. Any longer than that and your sort of expected to rent a hotel room, or stay at someone's place, rather than drain the Pokemon Centre's resources.

The weeks went by quickly. Jake trained his pokemon further, helping them get their new moves more effective and accurate. The Eevees were still growing at quite a rate, and according to Sam, Chestnut was almost adult size. Just out of interest, Sam convinced Jake to have his Eevees sized and weighed. Chestnut was now a foot and a half long not including his tail, and three quarters of a foot tall. He weighed ten pounds, which was apparently just four off the average for adults. Lemon was slightly smaller, though noticeably slimmer, and much lighter, weighing in at only seven pounds. Silvio was not even as long as Lemon, nor as tall, but was also seven pounds, as he had a similar body shape to Chestnut. Jake supposed it was to do with gender. He asked the nurse what the usual growth rate for Eevees was. She'd said that Lemon was right on track for a female her age, but Chestnut was big for his age. Silvio was definitely small, being the same age as Lemon and Chestnut, but he may catch up, or even pass his siblings in size. She also said that they slow down dramatically after a while, and it may take about a year before they reach their full size, though this was still quick compared to most pokemon.

Jake wasn't sure what the point of finding out their exact sizes and weights was, but Sam insisted it was useful. As they were leaving the Pokemon Centre to find more battles, he explained.

"Knowing their sizes now and comparing them in a month can help you see what kinds of pokemon they are developing into," he said. "That'll help you decide how to train each pokemon, what moves to teach them, and, in your case, what to evolve them into."

"What kind of pokemon have yours developed into?" Jake asked, interested by this concept.

"Well, Growlithe's a female, and they're like Eevees in that the females tend to be lighter and speedier, while males tend to be stronger. She also isn't fully grown yet, as she's only three years old. She's still bigger than most of other female Growlithes her age, though, and she's pretty strong, so I've balanced my training of her between speed and strength.

"Scyther's fully grown. Males and females tend to be roughly the same for Scythers. He's a little bit larger than the average adult male, so I concentrated on training him for power. It's weird, though. His size doesn't seem to have slowed him down. I guess it's because his wings are larger, because I've battled a couple of smaller full grown Scythers and he's kept up no problem.

"Diglett is a different story altogether. She's not very big, as far as Digletts go, but she's still far from full grown. If the trainer I got her from is telling the truth, she's only three years old, and they don't reach full maturity until they're about six. Females and males are roughly the same size, and the larger and stronger they are, the faster they dig, so there is no advantage to being underweight, really. Unless you can think up some radical new strategy. I haven't, but I haven't needed to. She's right on track in terms of size and weight for her age."

Jake listened with interest as Sam spouted all these facts. He felt guilty that he hadn't spent the time to research his pokemon. He decided he would do some in-depth studying of all of Eevees' evolutions as soon as he got the chance. All of a sudden, a thought about Sam's Diglett jumped into his head.

"Hey Sam, what happens when you release Diglett inside, or on concrete?" he asked, wondering if they destroyed the ground, trying to dig.

"Well, if you don't tell her not to, she'll try to dig through the ground. And if it's anything softer than steel, she'll probably succeed. If you tell her not to as you're releasing her, though, she'll just stay above ground, fully exposed. She doesn't like that, though, which is why I always keep her inside her pokeball."

Jake suddenly realised that he'd never seen a Diglett fully exposed before.

"What does she look like?" he asked.

"Well, she's got a mean set of claws, which are mainly used for digging, but battling Digletts like her also use them as a weapon. You've probably seen them before, when she was battling."

Jake nodded.

"She's also a lot bigger than you would expect. All that pops out of the ground is her head. Her whole body is actually about two feet long, and she has pretty powerful hind legs. You don't see that when I release her because she digs underground so quickly, almost before she fully materialises."

They eventually saw an ad for a small, private competition. It was close, so they decided it would do. It was open to intermediate and advanced trainers, so Sam was going to enter. Jake would still have tremendous difficulty at any level of competition, let alone intermediate or advanced, despite his improvement, so he was just going to watch. He had made a lot of money so far, and was not feeling particularly like battling today, so he wasn't going to challenge anyone there. If someone of his level challenged him, however, he was prepared to accept.

It was now a familiar scene; a small crowd, a makeshift battlefield, food and drink stalls. The only thing that seemed to change was the actual location. League sponsored ones, like the first one Jake attended, usually occurred at public parks, while private ones, like this one, were held on private property. The setup was the same each time, however, and Jake had no problem finding some seats while Sam signed up.

Sam found where Jake was sitting, and sat next to him.

"When are you up?" Jake asked.

"Third battle. They're all three pokemon each, which is good. That's how I battle best. You can also reintroduce pokemon you've returned, but only once. Oh, and it's a cash prize. Three thousand for the winner, two thousand for second place and one thousand for third."

"Big money," Jake commented.

"Yeah, I was surprised, for such a small competition, that's massive."

The first battle was over quickly. The winner had a Weepinbell, a Spoink, and a Magmar. Sam was pleased with this, because it meant that if he faced that trainer later, he'd have an advantage over each pokemon with at least one of his own. The second battle wasn't much slower, with the winner also having a Magmar, as well as a Slugma and a Houndour. Sam was also happy with this, since Diglett would have a field day against the fire types, and Growlithe knew how to fight without fire. With that, Sam went down to get into position for his own battle.

He was facing a man of about thirty, with dark hair and bright, friendly eyes. He introduced himself as Dave Normington, and he and Sam shook hands. They moved to opposite ends of the battlefield.

"Have you both indicated to the officials which pokemon you will release?" asked the referee. Both competitors nodded. "Very well then. Begin."

Sam released Growlithe at the same time that Dave released a Hitmonchan.

"Growlithe, Flamethrower!" called Sam, straight on the offensive. The flames brushed the Hitmonchan as he dodged.

"Agility, Hitmonchan. Don't let it hit you, then get in close."

The fighting pokemon dashed in and landed a volley of punches on Growlithe, which sent her flying backwards. She landed on her feet, a little battered, but fine.

"Bite it next time it comes close, Growlithe," Sam called. He was worried about the Hitmonchan's speed. "Get it in the leg."

The next time the opponent's pokemon darted in, Growlithe dived for its right leg, and locked its jaws around it. She let go quickly, to avoid being hit, but the Hitmonchan was noticeably limping afterwards.

"Good, Growlithe. Go for the other leg next time."

The opponent may have been slowed down, but it was still dangerous, and the next time it darted in it pulled off another volley of lighting quick punches, while avoiding Growlithe's lunge at his left leg. When the Hitmonchan tried the same manoeuvre a third time, however, Growlithe sent a burst of fire slightly to its left. The fighting pokemon did a half-pirouette as lost its balance trying to dodge the flame, and Growlithe shot around to the right, catching the left leg of its opponent as it swung around in its jaws. While she had his leg in his mouth, she blasted a stream of fire, which burnt the leg quite severely. The Hitmonchan lashed out, and knocked Growlithe off, but the damage was done.

"Flamethrower, now," called Sam, and a blast of fire shot at the injured pokemon as it hobbled up. It hit, knocking the pokemon back to the ground. At the other end of the battlefield, Dave conceded defeat, returning his battered pokemon.

The next pokemon he sent out was a Lombre. Sam had seen these before in Hoenn, and knew they were a grass/water type. He returned Growlithe, intending to save him for later, and released Scyther.

Seeing the Scyther, and realising that he was at a disadvantage, Dave took advantage of the switching rule and returned Lombre, instead sending out his own Growlithe. At this, Sam returned Scyther and sent out Diglett. Dave, still unwilling to fight with a disadvantage, recalled his Growlithe, and sent out Lombre once again. He could now no longer make any substitutions without forfeiting that pokemon. Sam realised he had the upper hand, returning Diglett and once again releasing Scyther. Now he had the type advantage, and if he used it properly, would against the Growlithe as well, with his own Growlithe spare.

"Alright, Lombre," shouted Dave, "Grass moves are useless here. Try to drench Scyther's wings to slow it down."

Lombre shot a jet of water at Scyther, who dodged in the air.

"Fury Cutter, Scyther," ordered Sam. "Use your speed!"

Scyther darted in towards the slow Lombre. It shot a jet of water straight at the Scyther, but he dodged again and slashed three times at the part-grass type, before floating back into the air. The Lombre was clearly hurt, but far from defeated.

"Try to keep it at a distance, Lombre," shouted Dave. "If it does get close, use Fury Swipes."

"Razor Wind, Scyther," ordered Sam. Scyther paused for a moment, before, with a swish one of his blades, he unleashed an arc of seemingly solid air towards his opponent. Lombre took the hit full on, and was flung backwards, but rolled back to his feet. In this time, Scyther flew back in close and struck with five consecutive Fury Cutters, each more powerful than the next. Lombre remembered what his trainer had told him, and lashed out with Fury Swipes. He was seriously hurt though, and another hit like that and he'd be unable to continue.

"Alright, Lombre, if he tries to use Razor Wind again, blast water at him as a distraction."

"That's OK, Scyther. Use Razor Wind whenever you feel like it. I won't call it so they won't know when it's coming."

"Dammit," Sam heard Dave say. "Just try to pick when he's going to use it, then, Lombre."

Lombre didn't pick it when it came. Scyther moved in a slow circle around Lombre for about 30 seconds, in which time he dodged four pre-emptive water strikes, before finally unleashing the Razor Wind. The attack struck home, and Lombre was out of contention.

When Dave released his final pokemon, his own Growlithe, Sam ordered Scyther to fly even higher, and fly in a fast circle to avoid the flames. Dave immediately ordered Growlithe to use a Flamethrower in the opposite direction to Scyther's flight, and nearly hit, Scyther only just swerving out of the way in time. Then, Sam was struck by an idea.

"Scyther, fly up high in front of the sun. Use it to blind Growlithe."

The flying bug complied, and positioned himself so that Growlithe had to look straight at the sun to see him. When he saw Growlithe wince and look away, he ordered another Razor Wind. Growlithe had the presence of mind to dodge, despite being disoriented and not knowing where the attack was coming from. The edge of the attack clipped him however, and Scyther followed up the attack with a strong slash from one of his blades. This brought him well within striking distance of the fire-type, however, and Growlithe blasted a hot stream of fire at him. He was knocked to the ground, and didn't get back up again.

"Good work, Scyther," Sam said as he returned him to his pokeball. "Your turn, Diglett."

Jake tried to get a glimpse of the Diglett's body from the stands before it burrowed underground, but it really was too fast.

Growlithe had used the pause to clear its vision, and shot a hot blast of flame, at Dave's order, straight at Diglett. Instinctively, Diglett ducked underground and the flames passed harmlessly overhead.

"Stay underground, Diglett. Dig down further so we can't see where you are."

She complied. She and Sam had figured how low she needed to go in order to not be detectable.

"Growlithe, shoot a Flamethrower down that hole!"

"Branch off quickly, Diglett," Sam said, caught off guard. Jake wondered if Diglett could hear Sam all that way underground, although he remembered reading somewhere that Diglett had excellent hearing.

"Now attack, Diglett," said Sam triumphantly.

Nothing happened. Growlithe, who'd flinched when he'd heard the order, looked around in confusion. Jake was worried that Diglett had been knocked out by the Flamethrower, but he could see a confident smile on Sam's face. Dave saw it to, and told Growlithe to be careful, and keep moving. Growlithe immediately started trotting around the field. Sam's smile broadened even further at this, but Dave didn't notice. They waited for a good two minutes. At first the crowd was silent, but they slowly broke into whispers, and then proper talking. Still, nothing happened, and still, Sam was smiling. The referee was in the middle of telling Sam that his pokemon had three minutes to show himself when the ground seemed to explode right at Growlithe's feet, silencing the crowd and the referee. Growlithe went flying into the air, and Jake just caught a glimpse of a brown blob with large claws underneath him. Even in the air, Diglett slashed and hacked at the Growlithe. She dove gracefully back into the hole she'd torn open, while Growlithe flopped to the ground. He tried to stand up, but collapsed once again. The referee pronounced him unable to battle. He offered Dave the opportunity to continue with Hitmonchan again, but he declined. He knew he'd lost, and didn't want to seriously injure his pokemon. The battle was awarded to Sam.

The two contestants went immediately to the healing machine under a tent. Sam allowed Dave to go first, since he had more seriously injured pokemon.

"You're a good battler, Sam," said Dave, remarkably cheery after the loss. "You handled Hitmonchan superbly, I must say. He was by far my best pokemon out there. That Gowlithe of yours was tough to take those punches."

"Yeah, she is pretty tough," Sam agreed. "I was lucky I had those type advantages though. Otherwise it might have been a completely different story."

"But you used the type advantages well. That manoeuvre you pulled with your Diglett was great too. How'd he know where my Growlithe was?"

"The vibrations from him walking," said Sam proudly. "Diglett have very sensitive hearing, and the vibrations from the footfalls get translated through the ground, letting her hear them despite the distance. You can imagine how happy I was when you told your Growlithe to keep moving. He would have been safer completely still."

"That's pretty amazing," said Dave. "Sixteen years as a trainer and I've never heard of anything like it. I'm raising some new pokemon, by the way," he added with a chuckle, seeing the look on Sam's face. "I've got stronger pokemon. I didn't spend sixteen years training to lose to some teenager with just the one badge. No offence."

"None taken," assured Sam, although this was not entirely true. Dave removed his pokeballs from the machine. Sam placed his own pokeballs in machine, and activated it.

"Would you like to see some of my stronger pokemon?"

"Now?" asked Sam in confusion

"Yeah, I've got three right here."

"Yeah, sure."

At that moment, Jake came around to congratulate Sam on his victory.

"Hey, congrats mate," he said, patting Sam on the back.

"Thanks. Dave here was actually about to show how much stronger he really is than me."

Jake looked worried that he meant it in a violent sense, but when he saw the smiles on both Sam and Dave's faces, he relaxed.

"How do you mean?"

"I'm just training those pokemon I was using. I've been a trainer for sixteen years, so I have some pretty impressive pokemon, at least compared with what we were using today. I was just about to show Sam a few. Would you like to see them too?"

"Yes, please," urged Jake, always excited to see strong pokemon.

Sam collected his pokeballs from the machine, as it had finished healing his pokemon while they were talking. After Dave released his first pokemon, they realised why they had moved outside. It was a giant Tyranitar, at least eight feet tall.

"Tyrant here was actually my father's, but he gave him to me the day I beat him in a pokemon battle. He was a Tyranitar even back then, ten years ago. I doubt I could raise one of these guys from birth to adulthood in a lifetime, let alone sixteen years. They grow real slow. In fact, he was my dad's starter, or one of them, as a Larvitar."

The next pokemon he showed them was a Blastoise.

"This guy was my starter. I was one of those that were sponsored by Professor Oak in Pallet Town, in Kanto. He used to give away a Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle every year. I think Professor Elm does the same here, but with Cyndaquil, Totodile and Chikorita."

Dave's third strong pokemon was an Espeon. Jake gasped, as he'd only ever seen one of those in his Pokedex, while studying his Eevees' evolutions.

"Wow," Sam breathed. "Hey, Dave, Jake here has three Eevees."

"What? Three?" Dave found it hard to believe.

"Yeah. Show him, Jake," Sam prompted.

Jake released Chestnut, Lemon and Silvio. Dave's eyes widened saw them, and widened even further when he saw Silvio.

"Amazing," Dave said under his breath as the Eevees examined his Espeon. "I've never seen an Eevee that colour before. And three Eevees. You're a lucky kid, you know."

"Yeah, I know." He briefly told the story of how he'd got them. He was becoming quite good at it.

"Any of them female?" Dave asked him.

"Yeah, Lemon. The light brown one," he said, pointing her out.

"Even luckier," Dave said. "Females are rare. That's part of the reason Eevees are endangered. Too many males competing for too few females. Espeon here is a female too. She mated with a male Eevee from a breeding program. I got a bunch of Eevees that way. My dad collects evolution stones as well as training pokemon, and he let me have a Fire Stone, Thunder Stone, and Water Stone. Now I have all the evolutions but one: Umbreon. It's hard to get a pokemon happy enough when you're raising about eight others of a similar age, and then to time it right, at night. But I'll get there. I've got another female, my Jolteon, so I can breed plenty more if I want."

They chatted for a little while longer, watching their pokemon interact. Soon, it was time for Sam to battle again. Jake and Dave returned to the stands to watch.

Sam was fighting the winner of the first battle of the competition. The battle was over quickly, with Sam emerging victorious. He took a risk and sent out Scyther first, because while he had a major disadvantage if his opponent sent out Magmar first, he had the advantage over two of his opponent's pokemon, Weepinbell and Spoink. Luckily, the first pokemon that was sent out was Spoink. Scyther disposed of it quickly. When Magmar was sent out, He returned Scyther and used Diglett. She used Mud Slap to good effect, to both harm and disorient the fire type, before finishing it off with a Slash attack. Finally, Weepinbell was sent out, and it faced the fire of Sam's Growlithe. The whole battle was over in less than five minutes.

After all the battles of the second round had been completed, the number of competitors had gone from sixteen to begin with, to just four. Sam was one of them. It was announced that there would be an hour's break before the semi-finals and final were held. Jake and Sam decided then was as good a time as any to get lunch, while Dave said it was time for him to leave. They thanked him for letting them see his pokemon, and left for a nearby café, discussing what strategies Sam was going to use in his semi-final battle.


	6. Chapter 6

Sam was up against a trainer slightly older than him who seemed to have battled while he and Jake were talking with Dave. He had no idea what to expect. He decided to send out his strongest pokemon, Growlithe, first, hoping he'd get a type advantage. He didn't. His opponent's first pokemon was a Geodude, and a big one. Sam returned Growlithe, sending out Diglett. His opponent, Brian Cosgrove, returned Geodude, and paused for a second, before releasing a Stanter. Neither pokemon had an advantage, so Sam was happy to battle like this.

"Dig underground, Diglett. Attack when you're ready."

"Keep moving, Stantler. Don't let her do the same against you as that other Growlithe." Once again, the opponent's strategy was playing right into Sam's hands.

A Stantler galloping made a lot more noise than a Growlithe, and it took far less time for Diglett to find his opponent. Once again, the ground seemed to explode, and Diglett shot upwards, slashing and hacking. She managed to land a couple of blows on her opponent, but as she was diving down, the Stantler caught her in one its antlers, tossing her to the other side of the battlefield. It galloped over, and before Diglett could bury herself completely underground, it sent a Confuse Ray her way. It hit, and Diglett suddenly found herself disoriented and confused. She did not duck underground as she would normally do as Stantler's hooves came crashing down. Sam winced every time Diglett was hit. He called her back, knowing she was defeated.

"Bad luck, Diglett," he said as he returned the pokeball to its notch on his belt. "Go, Scyther!"

The battle resumed. Sam had spoken to Scyther before the battle, telling him to fly up in front of the sun, like he did against Dave's Growlithe, as soon as he was released. This strategy once again worked, and Scyther flew in close, landing six Fury Cutters in a row, before being shoved away by a wild swing of the Stantler's antlers. Scyther was barely hurt by this, but Stantler was obviously tired and injured. Scyther once again flew up in front of the sun, but this time, Stantler had the sense to look away. It kept the Scyther in the corner of its eye, but was unable to see him clearly as a result. So the Razor Wind that hit it came as a complete surprise. With a mere nod from Sam, Scyther unleashed the attack. This brought Stantler crashing to the ground, unconscious, and Brian returned it.

"Go, Geodude," he called. "Hurl some rocks at him."

The Geodude scooped up loose dirt, turning it into rocks as he hurled them towards Scyther. Scyther dodged a few, before being struck by several at once. He fell to the ground, battered and bruised, but pulled himself back up.

"Land some fast Fury Cutters, Scyther!"

Scyther darted in, slashing away with his scythes. Geodude had curled itself into a ball, however, absorbing the attacks without sustaining too much damage. As Scyther began to dart in again, Geodude started rolling away.

"Pursuit, Scyther!" ordered Sam.

Scyther's speed suddenly picked up even further, and he crashed into his opponent, sending the rock pokemon flying a couple of feet, before gravity brought it crashing back down to the battlefield. As Scyther came in to finish it, however, Geodude sprang up, grabbing Scyther and throwing it into the ground in a perfectly executed Seismic Toss. Scyther was out of the battle. Geodude was tired and obviously hurt, though, and when Sam sent Growlithe out, a quick Flamethrower knocked him out.

Sam had no idea what pokemon to expect next as Brian returned his Geodude. He was horrified to see a Quagsire emerge from Brian's third pokeball. Growlithe had a double disadvantage to the water/ground type, and both trainers knew it. Brian had a triumphant smile on his face, while Sam was frantically trying to think up a plan.

"Alright, Growlithe. You're a lot faster than that Quagsire. Keep moving, and bite him when you can."

"Blast water at Growlithe when it gets too close," ordered Brian.

Whenever Growlithe tried to get close, she immediately had to veer away to avoid the water. The two pokemon were in a stalemate in which Growlithe was slowly tiring from the running. Sam knew this wouldn't work, so he tried something different.

"Growithe, next time he uses Water Gun, use Flamethrower at the stream!"

Brian examined Sam's face from across the battlefield, trying to determine what Sam was planning. He found out soon enough. The next time Growlithe tried to attack, Quagsire blasted water at her once again, but this time the blast was met with Growlithe's own blast of fire. This created a massive eruption of steam where the two attacks met. For about ten seconds, the steam made it impossible for the pokemon and their trainers to see a thing. Growlithe, however, had a far superior sense of smell to Quagsire, and quickly figured out that Sam wanted her to use this to attack. She dove in to the steam, finding her opponent and sinking her claws and teeth into his back. She inflicted as much damage as she could, and as the steam cleared, everybody but Sam was shocked to find Growlithe on top of her opponent, biting and tearing at him. However, before she could knock him out, Quagsire, being naturally slimy, squirmed around onto his back, and blasted Growlithe in the face with a powerful blast of water. At such close range, the effect on the fire dog was devastating. Sam watched Growlithe flopped to the ground in front of him, unconscious. The battle was over. He'd lost.

People began cheering in the stands, all except Jake. Sam was terribly disappointed at having lost, but went to shake hands with Brian. Brian, however, was not interested, passing Sam by as he made his way to the tent to get his pokemon healed. This left Sam's blood boiling, but a calming hand on his shoulder from Jake stopped him from approaching the arrogant boy.

"Hey, man, that was bad luck," said Jake consolingly, "He just had the type advantages over you. I reckon you actually battled better than him."

"His pokemon were just too good," Sam lamented as they walked over to the tent.

"Maybe," Jake replied, "but you still almost beat him. That idea with the steam was great. It almost had him. Had you two practised that?"

"No. I'd sort of mentioned it, but we'd never even practised it, let alone used it in a battle."

They waited while Brian stood in front of the machine, waiting to retrieve his pokemon. Jake could have sworn it was difficult to breathe, the tension in the air was so thick. They stood in awkward silence while Brian waited for his pokemon. After what seemed like an eternity, but was in fact only two minutes, the machine beeped, and he collected his pokemon. He departed without a word to either Jake or Sam.

"Arsehole," muttered Sam, turning his head to watch as Brian started talking to the officials about the final. "Hope we don't meet him again."

Sam still had another battle to go. He was going to battle the loser from the other semi-final for third place, and the one thousand dollar prize. He healed his pokemon, and left to be organised by the officials for his next battle, while Jake went to the stands to watch. Sam was battling almost immediately, as the other semi-final had taken place earlier. There was a ten minute break between battles, but that was soaked up mostly by healing pokemon. Soon, the both trainers were ready to battle.

Sam was battling a young kid named Robert Fielding. He was only about thirteen, and looked genuinely surprised to have made it as far as he had. The battle was over quite quickly, Sam having large type advantages over his opponent's Abra, Butterfree and Electrike. The kid looked disappointed, but not at all surprised. While they were healing their pokemon, he revealed that it was only his first competition. He explained that he'd grown up on a farm in Kanto, and had grown up with his pokemon all his life, battling his brothers and parents. He'd only just started his journey, and had no badges, but was still quite advanced. Jake offered to let him travel with them, but he was travelling in a large group already, with two of his brothers and a couple of frreinds. They swapped numbers, however, after talking for a while and getting to know one another.

Robert, or Rob, as he liked to be called, and his brothers and friends all sat with Sam and Jake as they watched the final battle. Sam was really hoping Brian didn't win. He figured his head was big enough as it is. Rob was going for the girl who'd beaten him, since he figured that if she won, it would make him look better. They were both disappointed, however, when Brian emerged victorious, and by a considerable margin too, having not even used Quagsire.

There was a small ceremony for those who had placed in the competition. First, Sam went up onto the podium to collect a small bronze coloured trophy of a Magnemite, shaking the hand of the organiser as he did so. He then received a cheque for one thousand dollars. The girl came on next, also shaking the organiser's hand and receiving a similar trophy, though this time it was silver. She also collected her cheque, and stood beside Sam. Finally, Brian stepped up. He took his gold trophy, shook the organiser's hand as though it was an afterthought, and grabbed the cheque. He held the trophy up high, making sure everyone could see, and even blew a couple of kisses, which made Sam hate him even more. After a few seconds of applause and cheering, they stepped down, and the crowd began to clear.

Rob and his group invited Jake and Sam out that night. Rob's brothers were older than he was. Bill was fifteen, while Adrian, or Ade, was nineteen. Their friends were both girls. Jen was Ade's girlfriend, and was his age, and Bec, who was fifteen, was her sister. They had all known each other since they were born, as they were neighbours in Saffron City, before Rob's family moved to the farm when he was only two years old. They had kept in contact when they moved, though, and often the girls would visit them on the farm. They had all wanted to become official trainers at the same time, so they decided to travel in the one group.

Jake and Sam both felt a little bit uncomfortable with this large group. They felt like they were blowing in a bit, as they really didn't know them that well. However, the group were nice enough, and even invited them to a party that they were going to later that night. Jake and Sam weren't planning on starting the hike to Azalea for a week yet, so they figured a mild hangover the next morning wouldn't be too bad.

Dawn had broken many hours before Jake's eyes forced themselves open. He closed them once again when he noticed the severe pounding in his head. He rolled to his right, and found his face immersed in a wall of reddish brown fur.

"What the h- Chestnut?"

Chestnut had been curled up next to his head, which was now one of his most favoured sleeping positions. Jake rolled back over, moving too far and falling off the other side of the bed. He landed in a tangle of sheets, himself and Silvio, who had been dozing next to the bed, basking in a ray of sunlight that was sneaking through a gap in the closed blinds. He hadn't landed directly on top of Silvio, thankfully, but the small Eevee was still startled. He padded away quickly as Jake thrashed his arms and legs, trying to free himself from the grip of the bed linen.

"Ah, you're awake," said Sam cheerily, coming in from the bathroom. "You had a few too many last night."

Jake just glared at him as he finally freed himself from the sheets.

"Why are you so cheery this morning?" Jake asked as he flopped back down on the bed. Lemon jumped up as well, both she and Chestnut playing next to him. Every jostle and yip made Jake's headache worse, until his hand scrambled around on the end table next to his bed, searching for their pokeballs. His hand found one, and, hoping it was one of the right ones, pointed it in the two Eevees general direction.

Chestnut crashed to the ground when, as he was about to tackle Lemon, she disappeared. Without Lemon to stop him, Chestnut tumbled off the side of the bed, landing in a heap on the floor. Jake released Lemon onto the floor, and the two Eevees continued playing next to the bed, while Silvio watched from beneath a desk.

"Unlike you," replied Sam with a grin, "I didn't get absolutely hammered last night."

Jake tossed a pillow towards Sam's voice. He had buried his face in the bed, holding his hands over his ears.

"You're a mean drunk, by the way," said Sam, a little more seriously, as he dodged the pillow.

"What?" asked Jake, turning his head towards Sam.

"After you'd had a few, and I mean a _few_, you picked a couple of fights. Nothing happened, luckily for you, because they would have beaten the shit out of you in your state. You could barely stand up at that point."

"No I didn't," said Jake, unable to remember a thing, "Did I?"

Sam nodded solemnly. Jake groaned, and once again buried his face in the sheets.

"How many did you drink, anyway? I didn't see you drink that many."

"I can't remember. I remember having my third, when we were in the garden, but from then on, I don't know."

"Do you drink often?" asked Sam, a knowing smile creeping onto his face.

"Not really. Only a few times with school friends from Olivine. It was a boarding school though. Strict. Couldn't get away with much."

"Sheesh, no wonder you got drunk. You had at least three vodkas and another beer after that third. And that was only what I saw. Dude, you gotta know your limits."

Jake groaned, and pulled another pillow over his ears. He wasn't in the mood to be lectured.

"Listen to me, Jake," said Sam, taking the pillow. "You were lucky I was there to stop those fights. You could have gotten into some serious trouble."

They sat in silence for a while.

"You were bloody funny, though," admitted Sam, chuckling. This even managed to get a smile out of Jake.

Neither of them felt like doing much that day. Despite what Sam may have said, he wasn't feeling too good after the night before either. Sam had let Jake go back to sleep for another hour, before they finally went down for breakfast. Though by that time, it was actually more like lunch.

Their pokemon were ravenous. Having stayed in the room all night, rather than going out like their trainers, they were not tired, and had been awake all morning. Sam had fed them some snacks, but when they got some real food at the centre's cafeteria, they dug in like mad. Jake was not particularly hungry, but Sam convinced him to eat a little.

After they'd eaten, they decided to see a movie. Neither of them had anything in particular they wanted to see, but there wasn't anything else that they felt like doing.

The day went by fairly quickly. The movie ate up a good three hours of the day, with the time it took to get there and back. They spent the rest of the day watching TV with their pokemon. Sam even released Diglett for a while, to show Jake what her whole body looked like.

The rest of the week went by in a flash. Jake trained his pokemon a bit further, as did Sam. After winning the competition, Sam was not feeling any great need to make money. As a result, he decided it was time to battle his Poochyena against some trainers. Poochyena was nowhere near his other pokemon's strength or skill, and Sam knew that he'd lose more battles than he'd win battling with him, but it would be good experience. All pokemon have to start battling some day.

Jake, once again, had a fairly good day. He started the day with $955, and made another $110, taking him well past $1000. Sam was, as expected, not very successful, losing about $200. For Jake, this would have been disastrous, but this was not unusual for trainers of Sam's level.

Jake, after taking receiving his winnings, decided to do two things. The first was to put all of his money in a bank account, because he was worried he'd lose his wallet. $1065 is a lot to carry around in your wallet. One of the many benefits of becoming an officially recognised trainer is you get your own private bank account, which was accessible through the Pokedex, so long as it had your trainer details on it. The second thing he decided to do was to follow Peter's advice and buy a new, better quality tent. He'd noticed that after just three days on the way from Olivine to Goldenrod, a couple of rips had appeared. Nothing serious, but they could well develop. He and Sam went to the Dept. Store, and Sam helped him pick out the highest quality one he could afford. He paid using his Pokedex to access his new account, and watched as 749 of his hard earned dollars were transferred. He was happy with his new tent, though. It was the model Sam had had previous to the one he was using now, and he said it would last him a long time.

The pair's second last day was spent restocking themselves with food and medicine for themselves and their pokemon. Jake also bought a couple of water bottles. He'd used some leftover plastic bottles from bottled water on his way to Goldenrod, but he wanted some sturdier ones that he could hang on his belt. He didn't throw out the old bottles, though. He wanted to keep them in his pack in case they went a couple of days without seeing a town, or in case of an emergency. They packed their bags, and got to bed early, both of them wanting to get plenty of rest before leaving the next day.


	7. Chapter 7

**OK, people, I've decided to ask for my loyal readers' opinions. First of all, do you think any of the characters so far would be suitable as a rival for Jake? Any character at all. You could even suggest some of your own invention, if you can be bothered. Secondly, do you think Jake and Sam need another companion? Again, your own characters are welcome suggestions. Finally, what evolutions do you think the Eevees should take? I've got some ideas, but I'd like your opinions, especially with the revelation of two new Eevee evolutions. See if you can guess the evolutions I have in mind. I've left a few obscure clues so far, but nothing's set in "stone". Heh, heh. Get it? Sorry, that was terrible. Oh, and does anybody now how to separate different sections of the chapters when submitting? The gap between each paragraph is the same no matter how many lines, or lines with indents, I put in the Word doc. Please send help! Shit! I've just realised I've been calling Ilex Forest Azalea Forest. Damn, now I've got to edit the other chapters AGAIN! And if you were wondering, I haven't modelled Ilex Forest after the game version, and I have no idea what the anime version is like. It's modelled after the forests to the south of Sydney, near Nowra.**

** Update: Fixed the problem with the paragraphs. Not perfect but it'll do. Thanks for the help Kyre Alder and Mysterious Secret.  
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Jake and Sam left Goldenrod for Azalea early Monday morning. Too early, in Jake's opinion. They woke up at 5:30 a.m., to leave at 6:30. Sam always insisted that they get up early on days that they were going to be walking. He liked having as much daylight in which to walk as possible. Jake had thought he would be used to it after the trip to Goldenrod, but three weeks of sleeping in to whatever times he liked meant he was extremely grumpy when Sam's alarm clock woke him up.

They both had a good, long shower. The trip from Goldenrod to Azalea takes about a week and a half, according to Sam, including a long trek through Ilex Forest, so they knew that hot showers would be few and far between for quite a while. They also stuffed themselves and their pokemon with a huge breakfast, before going back to their rooms to make their final preparations.

They left the Pokemon Centre right on 6:30, taking a cab to the southern edge of the city. They began walking from there, all of Jake's Eevees either walking beside them or, in Chestnut's case, perching on Jake's shoulder. Jake kept an eye on his Pokenav as they walked, making sure they were on the right roads, etc. They came across quite a few wild pokemon, and Jake took these opportunities to train his pokemon further. Chestnut's ability to dig was getting greater with every battle, and he was almost able to get far enough underground to move undetected, like Sam's Diglett. He was still very slow underground though, but Jake figured speed would come with practice and strength. Lemon's Body Slam was still a bit inaccurate, but a lot better than it had been when she'd first learnt it. But it was Silvio's Shadow Ball that was really impressing Jake, and Sam, for that matter. Once, Silvio managed to knock out Sam's Poochyena with it, despite the Dark pokemon's natural resistance to ghost type moves, and his greater experience. Admittedly, Silvio was lucky, as Pooch was flung into a tree trunk, which added considerably to the damage. Sam was still impressed that Silvio could send Pooch flying in the first place. Silvio was not particularly interested in Jake or Sam's praise, though, and after accepting a spray of potion from Jake, kept trotting along, without waiting for his trainer to follow.

Jake was still concerned about Silvio. At times, it seemed as though he'd come to fully accept him as a trainer and friend. Other times, however, he would treat Jake almost with disdain. Sometimes, when Jake asked him to get back in his pokeball, he would dash off, dodging the beams of red light. He never refused to battle for him, though, which gave Jake some confidence. Although it could be that he just liked fighting other pokemon, and Jake had nothing to do with it.

They stopped for a break after two hours of walking. They had had small breaks for a minute or so along the way, but they decided it was time for a bit of a longer rest. So far, they had stuck to the coastline, and when they came across a nice white beach with some shade, they figured it was as good a place to stop as any.

Jake was rummaging through his pack for food when he saw the fishing rod Peter had given him. Looking out to sea, he figured he might as well try it out.

He hooked some pokemon food onto the fish hook, and inexpertly cast the line into the sea. Sam watched in amusement as the line barely cleared the shore. He came over and helped Jake cast properly. He'd often gone fishing with his family before he started his journey.

The next time Jake tried, the line went a suitable distance. Sam told him to just wait for a while, until a bite came. Jake jammed the rod into the sand, and they both had a rest under the shade of some trees. After a few minutes, Jake got a bite, and Sam told him how to reel in the pokemon.

Jake was a little put out to discover he'd landed a Magikarp. Rather than fight the pathetic pokemon, he let it back into the sea. He recast, and once again waited. The next pokemon he landed was a Tentacool. He decided that this was worth a fight. He sent out Silvio, as he'd be able to attack without coming within striking distance of Tentacool's poisonous tentacles. The battle ended after just one Shadow Ball. Again, Silvio was in no mood for praise, returning to his spot in the shade.

They had been resting for fifteen minutes, and they decided that was enough. They set off again, still sticking to the coast. Jake was a bit annoyed he hadn't come across any more powerful pokemon while he was fishing, but Sam did not seem surprised.

"If you want to find some water pokemon worth catching, you've gotta go out off the coast in a boat or something," he told Jake. "That's what my cousin told me, anyway. He caught a Remoraid, which evolved into an Octillery. One of the friends he was travelling caught a Seadra, which eventually evolved into a Kingdra."

"Sounds cool," said Jake, still not entirely sure he wanted to catch one anyway. He still had the option of evolving one of his Eevees into a Vaporeon.

They came across some other trainers after another hour, a group of four. They all claimed to be beginners, so Jake challenged one of them to a battle, a trainer of about twelve, who's name was Danny. He was a bit in awe of Jake's three Eevees, as were most people when they first saw them. He didn't let it distract him, however, and he accepted the challenge. It was to be a two-on-two battle, with $60 for the winner.

The other trainers cleared the area, as they took several steps back. Because Danny had already seen Jake's pokemon, he offered to release his pokemon first, despite Jake being the challenger. He released a small, (female, according to Sam) Oddish.

Silvio had become somewhat of the go-to pokemon for Jake when there was no obvious advantage to any of his pokemon, despite his strange attitude, so he sent him out first.

"Alright, Silvio, tackle her."

Silvio crashed into Oddish, sending it toppling over. The bulbous pokemon rolled to its feet, however, and they once again stood facing each other.

"Leach Seed, Sucker," yelled Danny, a grin on his face. Jake didn't know an Oddish could learn Leech Seed. He watched as Silvio didn't quite dodge the seeds that spurted from the top of Oddish's head. As they began to sprout, he knew he had limited time to finish the battle.

"OK, Silvio, use Shadow Ball."

"Razor Leaf," called Danny at the same time.

Both attacks found their target. Fortunately for Silvio, the sharp leaves sent his way severed some of the sprouts that were slowly engulfing him, but he also received a lot of nasty gashes. His opponent, however, was even worse off. The poor Oddish, Sucker, took the force of Silvio's Shadow Ball full on. She was flung backwards, bounced and skidded a couple of times, before coming to a stop. She didn't get up.

Danny returned his Oddish with a look of incredulity. His second, and final pokemon, was a Mareep named, "Shocker".

With Silvio still suffering from the effects of Leech Seed, he knew there was little point in battling with him further. Instead, he recalled him, sending out Chestnut.

"Chestnut, dig as far underground as you can." Jake had been discussing a strategy against electric types specifically with Chestnut, and this was the perfect opportunity to use it.

Danny looked stumped. First an Eevee with Shadow Ball, now one that could dig! He knew that his Mareep's electric attacks would be no use. Even if he aimed them down the hole, they would be absorbed by the ground before they got anywhere near the Eevee. On the other hand, Danny couldn't see how Mareep was in any danger with Chestnut so far underground, so he figured he should let him try to shock his opponent anyway.

Danny was unaware, however, that Chestnut backtracked up towards the entrance of the tunnel he'd dug. As soon as Chestnut saw his opponent, he launched out, tackling, biting and scratching. Shocker keeled back under the onslaught, flipping onto his back. He righted himself, but was bleeding from several cuts, and was noticeably injured. Chestnut crashed into Shocker with another heavy tackle, knocking him to the ground once again. The electric pokemon managed to get a strong Thundershock in after once again pulling itself up. Chestnut took the blow, and shoock it off, before once again tackling his opponent. This time, Shocker didn't get back up.

Danny returned his pokemon, disappointed. He congratulated Jake, and handed over the money. He asked whether Jake had used TMs on his pokemon to teach them those moves. Jake replied with the affirmative.

"How about your Oddish?" Jake asked with interest. "I had no idea an Oddish could learn Razor Leaf and Leech Seed."

"My Dad bred his Gloom and Venusaur," he replied. "I got to keep one of the offspring, which was Sucker here. Because Venusaur knew Razor Leaf and Leech Seed, so did Sucker. Although it's odd that she knows Leech Seed. They usually can't learn that at all."

The two groups said their goodbyes after a few minutes of talking and resting. The group was actually heading from Azalea to Goldenrod. They said they passed a small town the day before which Jake and Sam could probably stay at, if they got there before nightfall. They also said Ilex Forest was not too hard to get through, and it only took them three days.

Jake and Sam kept going. They encountered a few trainers on the way, and had several more battles. They got to the town that Danny's group had mentioned just as night began to fall. They booked into a cheap hotel. The small town didn't warrant a Pokemon Centre, but the hotel had a healing machine. They healed their pokemon, and dumped their gear, before going out to grab some food. They found a pizza place, and ate there. The food was good, and quite cheap. After filling themselves and their pokemon, they returned to their room. Once again, Sam insisted on getting to bed early. Jake had no objections. After three weeks in Goldenrod, he was in worse shape than when he started his journey, and as such was exhausted after a day of near constant walking. They were both sound asleep by 8:00.

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It took them six days to get to the edge of Ilex Forest. The forest stretched from the beach on Jake's right to as far as the eye could see on the left. They got there about midday, and took a break, before venturing in.

The forest was quite similar to the woods in which Jake found his three Eevees. It was dark, and silent. The sounds of the waves crashing on the beach, so prominent before, were now completely muffled. It took them a while for their ears to adjust to the apparent silence. It was then that they realised it wasn't true silence. The cries of pokemon could be heard in the distance, echoing through the trees. They walked in a tight group. Even Silvio seemed a bit spooked by the forest; he only walked slightly ahead of the rest.

The path that they walked was well worn, thankfully. They had little chance of getting lost. The main ones were even signposted, and this, combined with Jake and Sam's GPS technology on their Pokedexes, kept them knowing exactly where they were.

They walked for three hours through the forest, before coming across a dirt road. They followed the road for another hour, before coming across a small rest area and campsite. They hadn't travelled particularly far in those four hours, as they were moving slowly. Several times they had to climb or descend steep slopes. This had taken its toll on Jake, and he was struggling by the time they trudged in to the campsite. Sam was in better condition, having done this sort of walking before, but was still exhausted. Jake's Eevees, including Silvio, had long asked to be returned to their pokeballs.

They asked some of the people at the campsite how far it was to the next one. Apparently, it was another five or so hours away. It seemed very early to turn in and set up camp, but neither Jake, Sam, nor any of their pokemon wanted to camp out in the open forest if they could help it. They set up their tents, and went into the little administration building to fill up their bottles and take a rest.

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Jake and Sam were up early the next morning, as usual. The two of them had both engaged in a few battles the afternoon before, against some of the other trainers at the campsite. They had won, once again, more than they lost, and both earned a little more money. There had not been a healing machine at the campsite, but there was a large supply of potions and other medicines, which Jake and Sam took full advantage of. They didn't want to waste any of their own, in case they needed them on the hike.

After an hour of walking within a similar landscape to the day before, they noticed the path begin to widen. They had been walking up a steadily rising slope the whole time, and this slope was about to reach its peak. It was hardly a mountain top, but the path widened to become about fifty feet wide. The path was no longer composed of trampled soil, either. They were walking over bare rock. As they emerged into this strange sort of clearing, they could look out over the landscape that surrounded the forest. The coast was beneath them on their right, and inland they could see more mountainous regions. Jake thought he might like to travel through there one day, but he knew it couldn't be for a while. Three normal type pokemon is not the combination you want against primarily rock types.

After twenty minutes of walking, the open area came to an end. Directly in front, the ground fell away into a steep slope, almost a cliff, which was heavily forested. The path veered to the right, and it swung back around to traverse the slope, making it easier to descend. Jake called all of his Eevees into their pokeballs, not wanting them underfoot as he and Sam negotiated the difficult terrain.

It took them about ten minutes to make their way down before the path flattened out. Several times either Jake or Sam would slip, and they would have to grab on to something, usually a tree or each other, for support. At one stage, Sam even considered getting his Scyther to fly them down, but even that short distance would be far too much for the bug pokemon.

Jake's Pokedex told him that following the path for another hour or so at their walking pace, would take them to a road. The road itself didn't go where they wanted to go, veering off and heading north, but they could follow it east for a while, before picking up again on another track. The other campsite, which had been mentioned the night before, was on this road, though it was no use to them. By Sam's estimate, they would reach it by lunchtime, which was far too early to set up camp, no matter how reluctant they were to camp in the forest. It was located after the road turned north anyway, so they would not pass it.

They found the road, and Jake released his pokemon. He and Sam were setting an easy pace, neither in a hurry to get anywhere in particular. They were resigned to the fact that they'd be sleeping in the forest tonight. There were no other campsites they could reach that day. The good news was that they were over a third of the way to the Azalea Town entrance. Jake was surprised so far at the small number of pokemon they had encountered. He could always hear the forest pokemon chattering away in the distance, but he and Sam had only seen about ten between them. Jake and Sam even battled some, a Caterpie each. Understandably, they had no desire to catch the pokemon. It was not what Jake had expected, though. He'd expected the forest to be full of pokemon, and there to be battles every fifteen minutes. He wasn't disappointed. He was almost relieved, in a way. It just seemed that a lot of the notions about pokemon training he'd picked up from watching TV and hearing stories, particularly Peter's, were being replaced by a far less romantic reality.

All this wasn't to say Jake was having any regrets about becoming a trainer. Jake reflected as he trudged along the road with his pokemon by his side, or in front of him, in Silvio's case, that this was the happiest he'd ever been. He'd always felt restricted, living on a farm, miles away from the city, with only two people his own age anywhere near by. He was finally free to do whatever he wanted, and at that moment, that included walking almost non-stop through a forest with the sun beating down on him burning his neck.

They walked for a solid two hours before they came across the new path they had to take. It was almost exactly noon. They figured that, rather than waiting another two hours or so, they should have an early-ish lunch right then. They sat under a tree, and munched on some of the food they'd brought. Sam let his other pokemon out to eat as well. Both trainers' pokemon started playing with each other as Jake and Sam rested.

An hour later, they resumed their walk. The new path started off at quite a steep incline, but Sam assured Jake that it would end quickly. Sam had taken responsibility for navigation, since he was more experienced than Jake and less likely to get them lost. True to his word, after about fifteen minutes the slope evened out, even sloping downwards slightly. On this ground, walking was easy. All of them, Jake, Sam, the three Eevees and Sam's Growlithe, who had decided she wanted to take a walk for a while, enjoyed the scenery around them. The sun had ducked behind some clouds for a moment, making the walk even more comfortable. Jake was only slightly annoyed when Chestnut once again perched himself on his shoulder.

It wasn't long before the sun came back out from behind the clouds. The heat radiated down onto the group. They were walking through an area of particularly low tree density, so there was nothing to prevent the full heat of the sun from beating down. It wasn't long before Jake's Eevees retreated into their pokeballs. Sam's Growlithe seemed unaffected, however, even appearing to enjoy the heat.

The landscape they had walked through that day was quite different to that of the day before. The forest before had been dense, shady and cool, whereas the forest they were walking through currently was light, with very little shade. Jake wondered vaguely why there was such a difference. Sweat was trickling into his eyes, and his leg muscles were beginning to cramp, as they climbed another particularly steep stretch of path. Even Sam was noticeably struggling, despite his greater experience and fitness. They took a short break before again trudging onwards, continuing their steady ascent towards some peak obscured from view by the forest.

They struggled to the top of the incline at about 6:00. They found themselves in an area similar to the rocky clearing they had come across earlier in the day. Once again, they had a terrific view of the surrounding area. They were a lot further inland than they had been that morning, and not quite as high. Both Jake and Sam were very pleased to see that they were almost all the way through. Sam guessed that at the rate they had been going, they would be out of the forest the next afternoon, and, with any luck, at Azalea Town by nightfall.

After having collapsed upon reaching the top, they decided to find a good place to set up camp. Anywhere would do, but if they found an area that had been used by other campers before, then it was likely to have a campfire area already set up, meaning less work for them. As they searched, they noticed some tents a few hundred yards further along partly obscured by some boulders. They headed over and discovered a small group of trainers. Jake and Sam introduced themselves to the trainers. There were four people in the group, and they introduced themselves as Courtney, Iain, Chris and Louise.

They were all experienced trainers, and all over thirty, but Iain, like Dave Normington, was training some new pokemon, and agreed to battle Jake. Iain only had two inexperienced pokemon with him, the others being far too strong, so they were going to use two pokemon each.

They were battling for $80. Jake, being the challenger, sent out Silvio first. He found that sending out Silvio first was a good strategy, as his ability to use Shadow Ball gave him the greatest flexibility against unknown pokemon. For example, the rock-type Geodude, which Iain sent out in reply.

It was clear from the broad smile on Iain's face that he thought he had already won. He had seen all of Jake's pokemon, and knew that the next would have to be another Eevee.

Silvio looked back at his trainer, who nodded at him. This was Jake's way of telling Silvio to wait until Geodude was close, before unleashing Shadow Ball. It was something they'd been practising on wild pokemon when they saw them, although this had not been often during their hike through the forest. Unfortunately, they hadn't seemed to have developed a deep enough understanding, as Silvio took the nod to mean he was free to use Shadow Ball whenever he liked, which happened to be immediately.

The Geodude managed to dodge the attack, as it was coming from a distance, and Silvio was still a little inaccurate with it. The element of surprise was gone.

"Silvio, I meant wait!" said Jake with exasperation. "Remember what we practised?"

Iain knew that he had been lucky the attack had missed, and that Geodude was too slow to keep dodging, so he ordered him to use Rollout to increase his speed, and maybe land some damage at the same time. The plan that Jake and Silvio had practised was still useable in this situation, so he remained silent, hoping that Silvio would be disciplined enough to pull it off.

Silvio was smart enough to fire several weak Shadow Balls either side of his opponent. This was not something Jake had ordered him to do, but it was effective, so he didn't complain. As Geodude was unable to turn sharply while rolling, he was shepherded straight towards Silvio. This put the little Eevee in a lot of danger, but also allowed him to unleash a full strength Shadow Ball straight into the rolling rock pokemon. The Geodude was stopped in its tracks, and sent rolling backwards just as fast, before slamming into a tree, bending it backwards precariously.

Iain returned Geodude, shocked that such a little Eevee had such a potent Shadow Ball. Silvio looked a little worn out from using the move so many times, but was still very battle worthy.

Iain's next pokemon was a Teddiursa. The normal-type pokemon rendered Silvio's Shadow Ball useless, but Silvio still knew how to use physical attacks.

"Silvio, tackle it to the ground."

"Slash it, Teddiursa!"

Teddiursa's claws tore at Silvio as he crashed into her. Silvio squealed in pain, but managed to land on top of his opponent. He returned the attacks with gusto, trying to pummel the little bear. Teddiursa was quite a bit bigger, however, and managed to flip Silvio on to his back. The two pokemon wrestled, before Teddiursa managed to land several hard blows in quick succession. Jake returned Silvio before any more harm was done. He was surprised by the Teddiursa's aggression, having always thought of them as cute and cuddly, the kind of pokemon that girls battle with. He decided that Chestnut was the right pokemon to send out, as he was closer to Teddiursa's size and strength, and with any luck, would match her for speed.

"Chestnut, dig underground."

"What the hell?" muttered Iain under his breath. "Where did you get your TMs?" he asked Jake.

"They were gifts," replied Jake, a small smile on his face. "OK, Chestnut, you know what to do."

Chestnut found a soft area of soil between the hard rocks, and dug. Jake and Chestnut had modified the strategy Sam used with Diglett. Chestnut was still not quite able to dig far enough underground to be entirely unnoticeable, but could still put himself far from harm's way. They had decided that Chestnut should just wait until his opponent came to him, rather than move around.

Sure enough, the Teddiursa came over to a small mound of soil that had been pushed up by Chestnut, sniffing cautiously. Chesntut kept waiting. The few minutes that he waited left Teddiursa confused, and she let her guard down. Suddenly, Chestnut erupted from the ground, slashing and hacking, looking very similar to Sam's Diglett when she used this strategy. Diglett's landing was much more graceful however, as Chestnut flopped to the ground on his back, before twisting back to his feet. The damage had been done, however. Teddiursa, having already had a lot taken out of her by Silvio, collapsed, injured and exhausted.

Iain transferred the $80 to Jake's Pokedex, complimenting Jake on his battling skills.

"You are a good strategist," he commented, putting his own Pokedex away. "For a beginner, especially."

The four trainers invited them to set up camp nearby, as there was plenty of room. They put up their tents, and joined them around the campfire for dinner. Jake watched the sunset from their high vantage point, with his pokemon by his side. Lemon, who had not battled since a wild battle just after they'd had lunch, padded around him, not the least bit tired, as Chestnut and Silvio both settled in his lap, sleeping. As darkness fell and the stars began to shine, Jake could easily make out the patch of lights which was Azalea town.

**So there you have it. Chapter Eight will see the pair arrive at Azalea Town. Please R&R, and if you can, can you give your opinion in regards to the questions at the top? Cheers 'til next update, then.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Here's chapter eight. All the questions from last chapter are still being asked, except for the part about separating paragraphs. Also, I've been referring to distances in the Imperial system because I feel most of my readers will be most comfortable with that, but my natural tendency is to use the metric system. Does it matter to anyone what I use? I'm more than happy to use the Imperial system if it is better for my readers, so let me know.**

Jake woke at 6:30 to the smell of bacon wafting into his tent. He smiled, still half asleep. Crawling out of his tent, he found he wasn't the only person who had been woken by the delicious smell. He, Iain, Chris and Louise staggered sleepily to the campfire over which Courtney and Sam were cooking. Jake's eyes lit up further when he saw Courtney throw some sausages on. Unfortunately, nobody had wanted to risk taking eggs. They were just too messy if they broke, which was almost a certainty on a journey like this. Still, it was shaping up to be a very satisfying meal.

"Guess what, Jake?" said Sam excitedly. "These guys brought sausages!"

Jake looked at Sam as if he was stupid.

"I'm not blind, Sam. And I can smell, too," he said irritably. Jake was never in much of a good mood in the morning, no matter how delicious breakfast smelled.

"Yeah," replied Sam, used to Jake's grumpiness. "Nice to have something apart from plain bacon for once."

On this Jake had to agree. Bacon was probably his favourite food, and he had insisted they bring mountains of it, but that made for a very dull breakfast every morning. He was pleased that the bacon hadn't been totally forsaken, though.

"Guess what else I've got, fellas," said Courtney, turning to rummage through her pack. Iain and Chris began to whoop and cheer as Courtney pulled out a plastic bottle of beige powder.

"Ta da!" she said as she pulled it out. "Pancakes!"

Jake almost fainted with happiness. Courtney got a bottle of water and added it to the mixture, shaking it, as the others took their seats on the logs surrounding the fire. Soon, Jake and Sam were devouring their food, relishing the variety they hadn't experienced for several days. The other travellers had even brought maple syrup, which Jake used _very_ liberally. Jake and Sam's pokemon had some as well. Usually they just ate pokemon snacks with a little bacon on the side, so they were equally pleased with the good food.

Jake found the best way to get all the flavours in at once was to wrap a sausage in a couple of strips of bacon, place it on the pancake, smother it with syrup and then wrap the pancake up around it. It was then a case of shoving as much of the bulky package into his mouth as possible. Silvio, Chestnut and Lemon all had fun fighting over the many crumbs that fell from Jake's mouth as he pigged out. Louise was disgusted, but Chris and Iain egged Jake on, getting him to try to outdo himself with every helping. Courtney scolded the two men for setting a bad example. Sam was laughing at Jake's face as he tried to stuff more and more food into a mouth that was only so big.

It wasn't long before Jake was feeling extremely sick. The night before, they had discovered that Courtney and the others were also heading towards Azalea, having been hiking in the mountains to the north. They had decided to join together until they got to Azalea. Which was why Courtney was annoyed that Jake needed some extra time to digest his food. Sam felt like punishing Jake for eating so much, and agreed with Courtney, but Louise was sympathetic, while Chris and Iain felt partly responsible.

"Not partly, totally," insisted Courtney, before reluctantly agreeing to start an hour later, at 8:30. The two playful men had fun taunting Jake, and poking him in the stomach with sticks. This, of course, made Jake feel even worse. Eventually, he felt ready to head off. They packed up, and smothered the campfire with dirt, before making their way towards Azalea town.

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After about two hour's walk, the group found themselves once again travelling along a road. It was this road that would take them to the edge of the forest and on to Azalea. Somehow, the idea of being on the final stretch gave a boost to their weary legs muscles. It wasn't long until the actual edge of the forest was shown on the Pokenav. They pressed on, moving ever closer to the boundary between green and grey which marked the edge on the screen. The scale on the screen was small, however, and after three hours they were only two-thirds of the way there. They stopped for lunch. Jake was feeling hungry again, to the others' dismay. He was much more careful about how much he ate this time, though, and made a determined effort to avoid Chris and Iain's eyes.

After filling up on sandwiches and snacks, and having a good, long rest under the shade of some trees, they continued. After another hour or so, they finally came to the intersection that marked the end of the forest. The edge was not nearly as abrupt here as it was on the Goldenrod side. There were still many trees on the other side of the road. According to the GPS, however, these trees were on private property, and not under any protection.

They crossed the intersection, continuing along the same road. They noticed several properties on either side of the road now. Some appeared to be farms, with large sections of the woods cleared for grazing pokemon such as Miltanks or Ponytas, and others were smaller, similar to Jake's home. They passed places like this for another two hours. Just as the sun was threatening to dip below the horizon, they found themselves outside the Azalea town Pokemon Centre.

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After booking some rooms in the Centre, they decided to go out for dinner. Chris, Iain, Courtney and Louise were continuing on to check out Union Cave to the East the next day, having all earned the Azalea Gym badge, and were eager to get in a good meal before they left. Jake and Sam didn't complain, especially when the older four offered to pay.

The restaurant they ate at was reputably the best in Azalea, and for good reason. The food was delicious, and it wasn't too pricy, either. Despite the other group's protests, Jake and Sam both contributed their bit to the bill.

They retired to the Pokemon Centre right after dinner. None of them felt like exploring the town after the long hike they had just completed. Chris, Iain, Courtney and Louise had all been there before anyway, and Jake and Sam would have plenty of time in the next week or so that they planned to stay.

Jake and Sam released their pokemon once they got to the Pokemon Centre, and fed them some scraps from their dinner that they had saved, as well as some pokemon food. Usually the pokemon would eat with Jake and Sam at the restaurant, but the restaurant had a strict policy against releasing pokemon indoors. They watched TV for about half an hour, before drifting off to sleep.

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They awoke the next morning at about 6:30, having woken up at that time for the past ten days. Jake, Sam and the others all went for a big breakfast before they parted ways. They went to a small café nearby, although in this small town just about everything classified as nearby. Jake was the only person who hadn't been here before, and he was surprised at just how small it was, considering it had its own Gym. He guessed it must have been no more than two miles across at its widest, and the buildings were scattered. It was a sharp contrast to the busy touristy Olivine, or the large, crowded Goldenrod.

At 7:30, it was time for the others to go. They said their goodbyes, and headed east towards Union Cave.

Jake and Sam had not yet decided how long they would stay, but agreed it shouldn't be more than two weeks. Sam felt that if he was to challenge the Gym Leader, Bugsy, he would need some time to train up, but felt that if he wasn't ready after a couple of weeks, he probably wouldn't be for quite a while.

Jake also decided to get some intensive training done. Apart from the brief period after teaching his pokemon their TMs, he hadn't spent a great deal of time on regulated and specialised training. The training he had done with his pokemon was really just on wild pokemon they came across at random. Jake felt that starting with three rare and powerful pokemon gave him a bit of an edge, and was eager to get his first badge quickly. The record was nine months, and this was measured from when the trainer met the pokemon, not when they registered as a trainer. This was not a big thing, and Jake wouldn't feel at all put out if he didn't beat it, but it was still sitting in the back of his mind.

Both boys went out in search of a good place to train. They found a place just outside of the town. It was a big area where a forest had been cut down. All that was left was stumps sticking out of the ground. They weren't sure whether it was private property or not, but they figured it was worth the chance.

Jake decided to work on speed and agility in all of his pokemon. Sam moved off to another area of the field, so that they wouldn't get in each other's way. Jake released his three Eevees, before thinking about the best way to train them. He decided to get them to race through the maze of stumps. The stumps prevented them from sprinting in a straight line, and would help train their dodging and turning ability at speed.

Jake got Chestnut, Lemon and Silvio to line up about three hundred feet away from him, and more or less evenly spaced. He then started the race. He was surprised by the result. He was expecting Lemon to win, given she was the fastest, with Silvio in at second, and Chestnut last. He couldn't have been more wrong. Chestnut was the first to reach him. It seemed his lack of speed allowed him to have more control in his running, and he easily dodged all of the stumps. Lemon was second. She darted in and out between the obstacles quickly, but occasionally she didn't quite make the turn, and would find herself heading straight for a stump. She would then have to slow down. Once she even tried to jump on of the stumps, and ended up smashing into the top, and falling back down. Jake just had to laugh at Silvio. After sprinting initially, he found, after banging into one too many stumps, that the easiest way to the end was to blast a straight passage with Shadow Ball. It took a couple of tries, but eventually the road was clear. He actually made it to Jake first, but Jake had to disqualify him, because Silvio's method defeated the whole purpose of the exercise.

He then got his pokemon sprinting through a course he had plotted in the field of stumps. He wasn't sure if what he was doing was of any use at all, but it looked like it would help. He changed the course up a few times in the next few hours, and gave his pokemon regular breaks. Towards lunchtime, he decided to race his pokemon again, making it clear to Silvio that he couldn't use Shadow Ball. Once again, Chestnut came first, Lemon second and Silvio last, though this time there was a marked improvement in all of them. Lemon only hit one stump, and was only a second or two behind Chestnut. Silvio also did well. The disadvantage his shorter legs gave him was balanced out by his small size, which allowed him to squeeze through tighter gaps. The only reason he came last again was the fact that he was sprinting all the way, which made it harder to dodge the stumps. Still, Jake was happy with all of his pokemon's work. They walked over to see how Sam was doing, and they decided to stop for lunch.

The rest of the day passed much the same as the first half. Jake decided to have some fun with his Eevees, and got them playing a little game. It was basically tag, but the pokemon had to stay on top of the stumps. If any of the pokemon fell or was caught, they would then be "it". After a while Sam's Growlithe and Poochyena joined in. Scyther and Diglett could obviously not participate, but had fun watching from the sidelines with Jake and Sam. Jake had no idea if this would help his pokemon's battle technique, but he figured that after a hard day of training drills, they deserved some fun.

Jake and Sam decided to call it a day just as the sun began to dip under the horizon. Walking back to town, Jake returned his pokemon. They were all exhausted. Jake felt strangely satisfied. He'd talked a little with Sam about fitness in one's pokemon, and found Sam placed extreme importance on fitness training, at least when not preparing for a big battle or competition. When preparing for one of those, as he was now, he put more emphasis on strategy and skill training.

They had dinner at the Centre, before heading back up to their room. They were all tired after the training, and it wasn't long before they were all fast asleep.

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The next two weeks went by slowly. Jake had decided that the training he was giving his Eevees was very tiring, so he only worked with them every second day, and only for half days. Sam, on the other hand, was training nearly everyday, and most of the time was putting in a full day's effort, in preparation for his Gym battle.

Sam was also taking the opportunity to train Poochyena. He included the little dog in all of the training he was doing. After about a week, Sam decided to test how far Poochyena had come by battling Jake again. The result was a complete turnaround from the last time they had battled, in Ilex Forest. Jake used Chestnut, feeling confident that the training they had done would give him an edge. Unfortunately for Jake, Poochyena had been doing more training, and more attack specific training at that. Chestnut was knocked out after just two very damaging bites and a tackle from Sam's Poochyena. While Chestnut did get some hits in, it really was a thrashing.

Jake took this loss particularly badly for some reason. They had agreed not to battle each other for money, so that was no problem. Jake was quiet for the rest of the day. He healed Chestnut and then retreated to his room to watch TV until lunch, when he grabbed some Pokemon Centre food. He then returned to the room.

Sam was a little perplexed by Jake's behaviour. It certainly wasn't the first time he'd lost, and Sam had hardly rubbed it into his face or anything. Sam simply spent the rest of the day training. He was concentrating more on his upcoming Gym battle than anything else. He had told himself than in five days, he would go for it.


	9. Chapter 9

Jake's mood did not improve as Sam's Gym battle drew closer. On the morning of the battle, he merely wished Sam good luck as he saw him off, before returning to the room to sleep. Sam was a little hurt by this, as he was hoping Jake would come to watch the battle, but he could see this was not going to happen. After having a little breakfast in an even littler café, he began walking in the direction of the Gym.

Jake wasn't sure why he was so upset himself. He had been planning on watching Sam's battle, and he felt bad for not going. He just didn't feel like watching it today. He knew Sam would be disappointed, and even hurt, but it was too late now. He'd told Sam that he was tired, but it was a lie. Now that he was up, he couldn't get back to sleep.

He played with Chestnut and Lemon for a while, while Silvio groomed himself in the corner. He watched TV for a few hours. There was a show on about some trainer on his journey. He laughed at how unrealistic it was. The trainer had just made it through some giant network of caves, being chased by some evil organisation or other, managing to save an entire community of rare pokemon along the way, and cracking a joke at the end, at which point the crooks were locked up, and they all live happily ever after. What a joke! The guy didn't have a scratch on him, either. Jake looked down at some of his own cuts and scabs he had accumulated through the hike in Ilex Forest, some of which still hadn't healed completely after two weeks.

Yep, pokemon training wasn't all fun and games and saving the day. Jake was still happy with his decision, however. That wasn't why he was all of a sudden feeling depressed. He stopped thinking about it, and changed the channel. A documentary about raising and breeding pokemon came on. While this aspect of training pokemon didn't really apply to Jake, it looked interesting, and he kept it on.

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Sam couldn't believe it. He had just emerged from the Gym, after healing his pokemon at the machine provided by all Gyms. He took the case in which he kept his badges from his pocket, and opened it. The Violet City badge stood there alone. And unfortunately for Sam, that would be how it would stay.

He had put so much effort into training for this battle. To lose was simply devastating for him. He had gone into the battle so full of confidence, and left so absolutely shattered.

Sam shuffled off slowly towards the Pokemon Centre. 'Maybe the fact that I lost would cheer up Jake, he thought bitterly. He regretted it immediately, but was still annoyed by Jake's behaviour. He was more upset from losing the Gym battle, however, so he continued on towards the Centre.

Jake jumped at the sound of knocking on the room's door. He had been beginning to doze off in front of the TV. He opened it to see a very disappointed Sam.

"I take it you lost, then," Jake said insensitively, before sighing. "Come on, tell me about it."

Sam walked in and sat on his bed.

"Well," he started slowly, "I thought it would be best to start with Scyther. He had the same idea, and sent his Scyther out too." Sam then proceeded to recount the entire battle, if a little haphazardly. From what Jake could gather, the first battle between the Scythers had been close, but in the end, Bugsy's won. Apparently, it was full size, and was just too strong for Sam's. After that, Sam sent out Growlithe, who managed to knock the Scyther out with a single Flamethrower. After that, however, Bugsy sent out a Surskit, a part-water type. Growlithe eventually went down due to the type disadvantage. Diglett then managed to just finish off the Surskit despite the disadvantage, but fell almost immediately to Bugsy's final pokemon, a Butterfree, being unable to use the underground technique they had practised.

Jake felt sorry for Sam. He knew how much effort he'd put into trying to defeat Bugsy, and had felt, like Sam, that victory was a sure thing. This just went to show how much both of them still had to learn about pokemon. It also made Jake feel extremely guilty for not being at the battle.

They sat in silence for a while, before Jake decided to have a shower, and have some breakfast. By this time, it was 1:30, but it was going to be his first meal of the day, so it was still technically breakfast. He returned after eating some food at the Centre's cafeteria to find Sam lying in the exact same position as he was when Jake left. 'Now whose turn is it to be depressed?' thought Jake, amused.

"So what do you reckon you'll do differently next time?" Jake asked as he flopped down onto his bed.

After a moment of silence, Sam replied, "I don't know. Maybe I should wait until I get my hands on a Fire Stone. Then I could evolve Growlithe. Or I could wait until Diglett evolves. Or Scyther, even. A Scizor should do better, being part steel type."

"Things haven't exactly gone to plan since we got here, have they?"

Sam looked over to Jake.

"No, I guess not."

"I mean," Jake continued, "You did all that training, but you still lost to Bugsy. And I did all that training as well, but I still lost to you. Whenever I've lost before I've thought it was just something that could be fixed with more training, but that was the hardest I've ever trained my pokemon, and they still lost."

"Is that what's been bugging you?" asked Sam incredulously. "The fact that I beat you with Poochyena the other day?"

Jake was about to protest this, but he suddenly realised it was true. He was upset because he felt like he'd been beaten at his best. Which was, of course, a completely arrogant assumption.

"Jake, you are going to lose occasionally, no matter how hard you try, and I guarantee you will be disappointed. But you need to learn that with time, and experience, you can always get better. Take me, for example. I'm really disappointed that I lost to Bugsy. But tomorrow, I'll be over it. I'm going to train harder, and hopefully, I'll be able to beat him the next time we battle. You need to think about what it is you need to do to improve, rather than just despair. What were you planning to do to beat Poochyena next time?"

Jake looked confused.

"I hadn't really thought about it," he admitted.

"Exactly," said Sam. "It's only a comparatively insignificant hurdle, but it's a hurdle nonetheless. We should battle again in a few weeks. Then we'll see who's improved more."

"Sounds good, I guess," said Jake, still digesting what Sam had said. "I guess now that I'm fully into this pokemon training thing, it's all starting to reveal itself as the bitch it is."

"_Life_'s a bitch, Jake," said Sam, throwing a pillow at Jake. "_Life_'s a bitch."

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They stayed in Azalea Town for a couple more days. The day after the Gym battle, Jake was out of his bad mood, to Sam's immense relief. True to his word, Sam was no longer depressed about losing to Bugsy. The two of them even went to see some Gym battles that day. Sam was pleased to see the two challengers for the day both get thrashed by Bugsy. It made him feel a little bit better about losing to him.

After the battles, Bugsy spotted Sam and came over to chat. He was about thirty, and had weird green hair. He was also an eccentric, and more into the technical aspects of pokemon training and battling than Sam. He and Sam started comparing the battles today with their own battle yesterday. Jake felt a little left out until Sam introduced him to the bug expert.

"Bugsy, this is Jake. We're travelling together. He's pretty new to pokemon training. He only started about a month ago."

"Hi," said Bugsy, offering his hand. "I don't think I have any more challengers today. Do you two want to some and see some of my pokemon collection. I think you would benefit particularly, Jake."

The two boys agreed. Bugsy led them through to a large room behind the battlefield in which some other pokemon were running around and playing. It turned out that Bugsy was interested in more than just bug pokemon, though bugs were still his favourite. He had several grass types, which wasn't surprising, as this wasn't a huge leap from the bugs, but he also had several rock types, including a Geodude and a Corsola. He had a couple of Abras, and a Ralts, which Jake was unfamiliar with, but Sam had seen before on his travels in Hoenn. The list went on and on. The noticeable omissions were any fire or flying types (aside from flying bugs). Bugsy even had an Eevee. He had only recently acquired it, and had been on the waiting list to get a female from a breeding program for over three years, despite being a Gym Leader, before he received it. He was therefore very annoyed to see that Jake had three, including a female and a silver one.

After having a look at some of his non-bug pokemon, he showed them his more powerful bug pokemon, which he wasn't allowed to use in Gym Battles. When Jake asked why he wasn't allowed to use them in battle, Bugsy answered that each Gym Leader had a certain difficulty, so to speak, allocated to them by the Pokemon League, and they could only use pokemon of certain ability in their Gym Battles. This didn't stop him from training other pokemon, however, and these were the pokemon Jake and Sam were looking at now.

Among his more powerful pokemon were a huge Scizor, and an equally large Scyther. According to Bugsy, these two were siblings, and the Scizor was the mother of the Scyther he used in battle. He also showed the pair his two Pinsirs, his Heracross, and, to Jake and Sam's amazement, his Shedinja, as well as the Ninjask that had to evolve in order for it to appear. Sam had never seen a Shedinja before, despite his travels in Hoenn, but had heard legends about them. They continued discussing pokemon techniques and strategies for a while. Bugsy gave them both some tips for raising their respective pokemon as well.

Jake and Sam stayed about three hours, in all. Bugsy even offered them lunch, which the duo gratefully accepted. They were surprised, leaving the Gym, at Bugsy's friendliness. Most Gym Leaders have little time to get to know trainers on a personal level. Then again, most Gym Leaders run workshops for trainers to improve their skill, or something similar. Working in such a small community, there was little point for Bugsy to do this, so he had lots of time to get to know new trainers. They even exchanged numbers. Sam promised that he would be back soon to win that badge.

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Jake and Sam spent their last full day in Azalea preparing to once again head off. They decided that the best route to take would be to go over Union Cave, rather than through it, as neither of them had any experience in travelling through caves, and to get lost would be disastrous. Sam had travelled over the cave before, and he described the terrain as a "warm up" to the mountains surrounding the Ruins of Alph. There was a decent store selling hiking gear in Azalea for trainers planning to hike through or over Union Cave, so Jake invested in some sturdy hiking shoes. The trainers he had been wearing only just got him through Ilex Forest, and he had a feeling worse was to come. He also bought some better clothes for hiking. His jeans and t-shirts would only last so long if he kept wearing them.

As for where they would go after they made it to Violet City, they were undecided. They were considering heading over to Kanto, or hiking up to Blackthorn City. Sam wanted to check out some of the dragon pokemon that could be supposedly found at Blackthorn, but also wanted to visit his family in Kanto again, so either option was fine for him. Either way, Sam estimated it would take several months to get there. Strangely enough, Jake felt pleased at this. He hadn't really felt like his journey had begun yet, at least not fully. The last month or so had really been about finding his feet, and it had been easy. Now it seemed the true challenges were beginning, and he couldn't wait.


End file.
